SSAGES 

Faith Ho 



MESSAGES 

OF - w* 

FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE 



^elections 

FOR EVERY DAY IN THE YEAR FROM THE SERMONS AND 
WRITINGS OF 



JAMES FREEMAN CLARKE 



NOV 241894] 



BOSTON 

Geo. H. Ellis, 141 Franklin Street 
1895 




THE LI»*ARY 
Of CONGRESS 

WASHlNOTOy 



COPYRIGHT 

Bv Geo. H. Ellis 
1894 



LC Control Number 




tmp96 031436 



0E0. H. ELLIS, PRINTER, 141 FRANKLIN ST., BOSTON. 



PREFACE. 



The sermons from which these selections are 
taken were written by one who during all his life 
"abounded in hope/' — hope rooted in a faith in 
the never-failing goodness of a heavenly Father ; 
a faith which grew only stronger and deeper in 
hours of sorrow and bereavement, one in whom 
were realized the words of the apostle, — 

" Love beareth all things, believeth all things, 
hopeth all things, endureth all things ; 

" Love never faileth" 

These words, which have brought strength and 
comfort to those who heard them spoken, are now 
sent forth as messages to others. 

We cordially thank Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin 
& Co., and Lee & Shepard, whose kindness has 
enabled us to make use of extracts from their 
publications. A list of these books, with refer- 
ences, will be found at the end of this volume. 

L. F. C. 



January 



WORK. 



January i. 



HAT a wonderful thing it is that we 



VV should be alive! If we live millions 
of years, nothing can happen to us more 
wonderful than this, — that we have begun 
to be, that we are born into this great uni- 
verse, infinite in extent, everlasting in dura- 
tion, and filled with the presence of divine 
power, wisdom, and love. We have been 
created, by a divine foreknowledge and pur- 
pose, to be living souls, capable of knowledge, 
love, action, progress, goodness, joy. We 
have been placed in one of the many man- 
sions of our Father's house, to grow up into 
what he means us to be. This entrance into 
the universe is such an amazing event that it 
might easily overwhelm us with its wonder. 
We are so softly cradled into being that we 
do not feel the enormous change. But, to 
make the most of life, we must see this 
wonder of existence. We must feel what a 
great, unspeakable gift was bestowed on each 
of us in that we live. 




4 



MESSAGES OF 



January 2. 



O get the most out of the coming year, 



1 we must put the most into it. And we 
put the most into it by living in a spirit of 
earnestness, doing with our might what our 
hand finds to do, not trifling with the golden 
hours, but receiving each as a precious gift 
from God. Only such earnest purpose makes 
the day a blessing, insures progress from 
good to better, and causes us to live in eter- 
nity while we are in time. They are the 
happiest who value every hour, who put good 
work into it, who do not procrastinate, who 
do everything now, and do it as well as it 
can be done. These make of life a fine art. 
Such men say each year, in the words of our 
dear brother and friend : — 

" Build thee more stately mansions, O my soul, 
As the swift seasons roll ! 
Leave thy low-vaulted past ! 
Let each new temple, nobler than the last, 
Shut thee from heaven with a dome more vast, 

Till thou at length art free, 
Leaving thine outgrown shell by life's unresting sea ! " 

So we u redeem the time," so free ourselves 
from its despotic law of change and decay. 
When we put all the good we can into the 
year, we shall get all the good we may out 
of the year. Each moment of time may thus 
bring to us a glow and throb of eternal exist- 
ence, make us inwardly younger as we grow 
older, until we enter that perfect state of 
which it is written that " time shall be no 
longer." 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



5 



January 3. 



HIS is the first thing to remember, if we 



1 wish for a happy year, — that pleasure, 
which comes from without, is evanescent ; 
but happiness, which comes from within, is 
permanent. Not what we have, but what 
we are, is the one thing needful. From our 
own life, being, character, flows true happi- 
ness into the heart. 

Pleasure comes from transient and succes- 
sive impulses : happiness flows in a continu- 
ous stream. What shall give this continuity 
to our life ? We need some steady purpose, 
in order not to be swept away by the constant 
distractions of every day. We ought not to 
be tossed here and there by the waves of 
circumstance, not to drift with every chance 
current, but to steer in a fixed direction. 
This gives real content. We owe a great 
deal to daily work ; and, if we are not com- 
pelled to work, we should seek some regular 
work to do. Then we have the sense of ac- 
complishment, of going forward, of finishing 
something. Discontent largely comes from 
not putting ourselves to some steady business 
in which we can make progress. Beside the 
necessary work of every day, it is well to 
have a plan or useful purpose, — something 
to do, which we are not compelled to do, out- 
side of the mere routine of life. We see little 
children with some such object, making a 
collection of seals or stamps or autographs. 
That is better than having to say, "What 
shall I do?" It gives a certain continuity 




6 



MESSAGES OF 



even to a child's life, and these little enter- 
prises should be encouraged. 



January 4. 

A HIGHER object than this is to have 
some permanent study, which shall give 
unity to the year, — the pursuit of some art 
or science to which we feel ourselves at- 
tracted. Select something, — botany, geol- 
ogy, the study of the habits of birds or ani- 
mals. Take a period of history, and make 
it an object to find out all that can be known 
in regard to it. Every such study widens 
and opens as we advance. It leads us to 
higher elevations, to the survey of a broader 
horizon. It is a spell drawing us on to new 
vistas of thought and insight. We begin 
anywhere, and go everywhere. A man who 
has some special study has so much purpose 
in his life. He is saved from desultory 
thought, develops powers of accurate obser- 
vation. He has a thread of unity in this 
pursuit which is itself an education of the 
will, giving concentration, grasp, and persist- 
ent determination of character. 

One special advantage of such a study is 
that it takes us out of ourselves, while the 
pursuit of pleasure ends in self. To put our- 
selves resolutely into some pursuit outside of 
mere enjoyment is a check to egotism, and 
enlarges the soul. This, also, helps to make 
a happy new year. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 7 

January 5. 

IN this world all our activity and all our joy 
come from three sources, — thought, love, 
work. First, there is intelligence, exercise of 
intellect, creating our knowledge, giving the 
power of thinking accurately and justly. 
There is that inspiration, which all men share 
more or less, by which a stream of new ideas 
flows into the mind from some upper source. 
This is one fountain of human joy. A second 
source of contentment is work. To be able 
to exercise our powers, to accomplish some- 
thing, to bring order out of confusion, to add 
something to the wealth of the world, — this 
is another great source of satisfaction. And, 
thirdly, there is love. To be able to go out 
of ourselves, to sympathize with others, to 
enter into their needs and perplexities, to 
help them forward, to enjoy and reverence 
great qualities of min'd and heart, to feel at 
home in the society and friendship of other 
minds, — this is another of the essentials of 
happiness. But, when we have them all 
united, we have a sort of heaven, even in 
this life. That is why Paul spoke of sitting 
in heavenly places with Jesus Christ now. 



January 6. 

I STAND in the solemn cathedral, with its 
multitude of chapels, its soaring columns, 
its interlacing arches, its gorgeous windows, 
its gloom and glory. Awe falls on my soul 



8 



MESSAGES OF 



as I remember the prayers, the anthems, the 
aspirations, which have gone up in this place 
to God. But no such fear and awe falls on 
us as when we witness the struggles of a 
human soul. Then Ave say : " One stands 
here greater than the Temple ! " " This is 
none other than the house of God and the 
gate of heaven.'' There is nothing so inter- 
esting to man as man. That is why we read 
novels, forgetting that no such romances were 
ever invented as exist by our side in human 
lives. This will be a happy year if we learn 
in it to find a new interest in our fellow-men. 

But for such a work we need a higher in- 
spiration than that of human genius. We 
must be led by the Spirit. What a peace 
comes to us when we realize that there is 
such an inspiration always waiting for us: 
that we need only to consent to be led, and 
we shall have given us what to think and say 
and do ! Then we are ready for all occa- 
sions ; then no duty is too hard, for we have 
a well of water within the soul perpetually 
flowing, — a guidance and influence sufficient 
for all things. Let us remember that Ave are 
never asked to do a duty, but that power will 
be given us Avith which to do it. This year 
let us groAv in grace. Let us lean more and 
more on this inAvard inspiration. Let us be 
sure that this comfort, this light, this guid- 
ance, this strength and peace, may ahvays be 
ours. 

The past year has brought many joys and 
sorrows. It has taken from us dear and 
noble friends. It has given us great oppor- 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



tunities. It has brought to us the beauties 
of nature, the delights of friendship, the 
glories of an ideal world, inspirations from 
on high, the movements of human history, 
the progress of mankind. Let us be grateful 
for all, and trust in God for the future. 



outward things grow old, decay, and 
die. All organized beings are subject to the 
same immutable law. Everything is transient, 
nothing is permanent. 

Everything ? No, not everything. The 
higher nature in man rises above the power of 
this law of time. It does not grow old, does 
not decay, cannot die. We all have within us 
the principle of immortal youth. Thought is 
always young. Knowledge never grows old. 
Joy in the beauty of nature, in the work of 
daily duty, in the divine love, gives to age the 
charm of childhood. 



HE world itself is the greatest of all 



1 miracles. The year, as it comes and 
goes, is miraculous all through. Do not al- 
low custom to stale to your mind its infinite 
variety. It is a miracle when spring and 
summer awaken all nature to a new life. 
Every tribe of living things, — insects, the 
sweet song of summer birds, the tenderness 



January 7. 




makes all 



January 8. 




IO 



MESSAGES OF 



and grandeur of sky and sea, sunrise and sun- 
set, the abyss of the midnight heavens, the 
stars in their solemn courses, — all are mir- 
acles coming fresh from the infinite abyss of 
being. 

If you would gain the most out of the year, 
fill your soul with a sense of these wonders ; 
and rejoice, if you have nothing else to be 
thankful for, for this majestic universe and 
this divine presence, and for the mysterious 
life within you which God has given. 

January 9. 

CONSIDER the life of a man like Agassiz, 
filled with an enthusiastic desire to 
know all the secrets of Nature. He, like 
Paul, never counted himself to have appre- 
hended. He forgot what was behind, and 
reached out to that which was before. His 
life was full and rich, and he made the most 
of it. He worshipped God in the temple of 
Nature. How happy he was in this immense 
love for Nature ! Nothing was too minute 
in her works to interest him, for everything 
was significant. At one end of the scale of 
human existence stands the man of the world, 
to whom nothing seems of much importance. 
At the other end is a man like Agassiz, to 
whom nothing is ///^important. To him every- 
thing which has been made has a meaning. 
Thus he lives in a world in which he sees 
nothing insignificant. 

Genius, like piety, calls nothing common 
or unclean. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



1 1 



January 10. 



HIS, then, is the first rule for making the 



I most of life: Forget yourself in some in- 
terest outside of yourself, He who is turned 
inward, thinking of himself, admiring himself, 
complaining that he is ill-treated; he who 
thinks he ought to have more of the rewards 
of life,— he is the one who does not begin to 
live. Life is born out of communion, — com- 
munion with God, Nature, man. " We only 
live," says the philosopher Fichte, "we only 
live when we love ! " How true that is ! 
We must be interested in something in order 
to be alive, and no one can take a great deal 
of interest in himself. Looking in the glass 
is an unprofitable occupation. 

But, you may say, we cannot be all inspired 
apostles or great philosophers. No ; but the 
motive, the principle, which made their lives 
rich, we can have in ours. 



HINK also this,- — that each of us has 



I been created for a special work, that 
each is an essential part of the great whole, 
and that, as the soul is unfolded and we are 
developed more and more, we shall find our- 
selves here for a special mission. Let us not 
think lightly of our destiny. Christ, it is 
said, was "before Abraham" in the purpose 
of God. He was foreordained, before the 
foundation of the world, to be the savior of 
mankind. But each of us was also fore- 




January ii. 




12 



MESSAGES OF 



ordained before the foundation of the world. 
To one God gives ten talents, to another five, 
to another one ; but the man who has one 
talent is not to hide it in the ground, for it is 
his Lord's money, not his. So each of us is 
an integral part of God's world. If we are 
faithful in the least, we shall be made faithful 
in much. Put your two mites into God's 
treasury this coming year. 



January 12. 

EVERY soul is a unit in the sight of God. 
Every soul is a seed to be unfolded ac- 
cording to its own law, to grow up in all 
things into what God meant it to be. 

This year, then, let us each endeavor to 
grow, — to grow according to the law of our 
own being ; to be our best selves, and so to 
find out our own strength and weakness. To 
be true to ourselves ; to be faithful to the 
light God gives us ; not to be moulded by 
fashion, but to stand on our own feet, — this 
gives every one some strength, some power to 
do good. In order to give, we must have. 
In order to help others, we must be some- 
thing ourselves. 

And then, having something of our own, let 
us give. Let the life which God sends to our 
own mind and heart go forth freely to find 
other minds and hearts. Do good, hoping for 
nothing again, satisfied that it is blessing- 
enough to be able to bless others, and that it 
is more blessed to give than to receive. What 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 13 

a happy New Year it will be to us if its hours, 
as they come and go, find us not minding 
our own good solely, but also the good and 
joy of others! Let us educate ourselves to 
think of what others need, of what will sweeten 
life to them. Let us acquire those habits of 
kindly action and kindly speech, that aroma 
of good will which sends joy and strength into 
other hearts. 

January 13. 

WHENEVER our soul touches the divine 
essence which fills nature and life, 
and is not far from any one of us, which in- 
cludes us all, we escape the penalties of time 
and sense. Every moment in which we obey 
the law of right and deny a temptation to do 
wrong translates us out of time into eternity. 
Then we come in contact with God. Every 
throb of disinterested love, every sincere 
struggle to do good, makes us, as the apostle 
says, "partakers of the divine nature." This 
is why Jesus says, " He who believes in me 
shall never die/' and " He who believes in 
me has everlasting life abiding in him." But 
he meant by this, faith in that divine truth 
and love which dwelt in him, that heavenly 
spirit which was incarnate in him, that noble- 
ness of soul which made him Immanuel, God 
with us. For God comes to us in every 
such holy, pure, and generous nature, and 
most of all in Jesus, because his life was most 
full of God. 

In order to be forever young, we must have 



14 



MESSAGES OF 



this life which is " hid with Christ in God," — 
this life in two worlds, the world of time and 
that of eternity. If we live only in the world 
of time, we are subject always to decay and 
loss. That is why some men seem never to 
soften or to expand; they pass through a 
long experience, and learn nothing by it ; they 
repeat forever the faults and mistakes of the 
past. 

But others live in two worlds, — that of 
sense and time, that of soul and eternity. 
No event to them is simply material, no fact 
merely physical. There is a meaning in it 
all, — an intelligent purpose, a divine wisdom. 
So the best of what happens to them enters 
into them, and becomes part of themselves. 
They drink at the fountain of perpetual 
youth. 



OU can put into a minute of time only 



1 just so much manual labor ; but you 
can add to the same minute thought and love. 
It is the action of the higher human powers 
which lengthen life, which turn an hour into 
a day and one year into ten. Some of the 
greatest souls who have lighted up the earth 
have had a short life, if measured by years, 
.but how long, if we consider the number of 
their great endeavors and accomplishments. 

Not only genius, but goodness, lengthens 
our days. How long are the lives of those 
generous souls who live for others ! Most of 
us each day think of what we can get or do 



January 14. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



for ourselves ; but there are those who ac- 
quire the habit of helping others, of comfort- 
ing, of adding cheerfulness and strength, 
wherever they go. To those who thus give 
much is given in return, — contentment, trust 
in God, confidence in their fellow-men, sweet 
hopes, peaceful memories. 

To fill life full, you must open it upwards 
toward truth, beauty, goodness. Mere excite- 
ment is not life ; for all excitements weary, 
and are succeeded by depression. The hard 
routine of work into which no love and no 
thought enter, and which is done from neces- 
sity, not duty, leaves us in a lethargy. In 
order to " redeem time," we must look up, 
and not down, Seeking things below takes 
our strength out of us : waiting on the Lord 
for his higher gifts renews our strength day 
by day. 



HEN one is dangerously sick, it is com- 



VV mon for religious persons to inquire 
whether he is prepared to die. We feel — and 
feel rightly — that, before such a momentous 
change, it is important to be prepared. One 
wishes to arrange his affairs, to make his will, 
to take leave of his friends, to forgive his 
enemies and to ask their forgiveness, to fin- 
ish any work which he has begun, to leave 
some token of affection with those he loves, 
to do some good to those who depend on 
him and whom he can help ; lastly, to make 
his peace with God, and to give his heart 



January 15. 




i6 



MESSAGES OF 



in prayer, submission, penitence, and faith to 
the Almighty. 

This is ail natural and right. But all this 
would be better if it were done while we live, 
and for the sake of life. — not merely when 
we are about to die. Let us. therefore, see 
how we can set our house in order, that we 
may live. 

This command is for all of us. God says 
to each of us to-day, " Set thy house in order, 
for thou shalt live/' Life is the serious 
thing, and we have to live. Death is serious, 
but life more so. We have no responsibility 
about dying, but a great deal about living. 
When we live, we take up our own work, and 
have our own lot to choose. YVe fall into our 
07£'?i hands ever}* morning. 

January 16. 

BL'T besides the house of affairs there is 
also the house of the thoughts to be set 
in order. Many people wait till they are 
about to die before they think at all on the 
most important subjects of thought. Then 
into the confusion of a sick man's brain they 
try to introduce order, and to arrange a creed. 

We need a clear and systematic belief to 
live by. not to die by. We need it to save 
us from hesitation and uncertainty when the 
time of action comes. We need it to guide 
others who are in doubt ; to see all events 
that occur in the holy light of Christianity : 
to see sorrow and trial glorified by a divine 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



17 



love ; to comprehend with all saints what is 
the length and breadth and depth and height 
of the love of God. 



HEN there is the house of the affections 



1 to be set in order, and this ought to be 
done while we live. 

Many wait till they are about to die before 
they look into their heart to see what is there. 
Then they find how cold their love has been 
to their friends ; how they have neglected 
opportunities of showing affection and good 
will ; how, absorbed in selfish thoughts and 
pursuits, they have not thought of the happi- 
ness of others. In the stillness of the sick- 
chamber, as they look back, how empty their 
years seem of good ! What return have they 
made for the exceeding love of parents, of 
husband, of wife, of brother and sister, of 
friends? Love has been showered on them 
like sunlight ; but, as the sunlight falls on the 
inaccessible summit of some frozen Alpine 
peak, so it has fallen on their hearts, leaving 
them unmelted into any tenderness. " Oh," 
they cry, " If I could only set this house in 
order, if I could only have time to love as I 
ought those who have loved me so well ! But 
it is too late now ! " What bitterness is in 
that thought ! But the bitterness is whole- 
some ; and it often happens that the man who 
has been cold and hard through life softens 
in his last days, and in his sick-chamber, into 



January 17. 




1 8 MESSAGES OF 

an unspeakable tenderness and gentleness of 
spirit. And such is the nature of the human 
heart that these last hours of unproductive 
tenderness seem to atone for all the hard 
years that preceded them; and the wife 
and children remember him as he was in his 
dying room, and say, " That was himself, that 
was his true life/' But is it well to waste 
fifty years in cold, hard, self-folded indiffer- 
ence, and to set the house of the heart in 
order only when just about to go away? 
Would it not be better to have a little 
thoughtful love spread over each day ? a few 
kind words uttered every morning and every 
evening, some little acts of good will to re- 
fresh life all along its route? 

January 18. 

WE also need to set in order the house of 
the Spirit. This preparation, more 
than any other, is apt to be left to the hour 
of death. Men about to die bethink them 
of making their peace with God, and turn 
to religion. Then for the first time they re- 
member that they are sinners, and ask for 
pardon. Then first they feel their own weak- 
ness, and pray for help. It is good to do so. 
It is good to pass through this experience 
then, if one has never had it before. 

But how much better it is to set in order 
the house of the Spirit all through life ! Re- 
ligion, true religion, is to help us to live 
nobly, truly, generously. It is to enable us 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 19 

to perform every-day duties faithfully, to 
endure common trials patiently. 

We need religion, we need the sense of 
a divine presence and a divine love, to enable 
us to be true and faithful in this world. We 
need forgiveness for this life, not for the life 
to come. 

Let us, then, set our house in order, that 
we may live ; the house of our affairs, that 
we may act efficiently and usefully; the 
house of our thoughts, that we may see 
clearly what to do and how to do it ; the 
house of our affections, that we may shed 
warm sunshine around us, on all hearts near 
us ; the house of our soul, that, being led by 
God and inspired by him, we may have his 
peace in our souls evermore, and live his 
eternal life. 

January 19. 

" r\0 the nearest duty!" We are often 
told that this is a good maxim to 
follow in our daily life. 

While we ought to begin with the duties 
which are laid upon us by circumstances and 
the recurrent necessities of life, it does not 
follow that we are to remain there. The 
nearest duty may take another form, and 
become that nearest to our ability, that which 
we are most fit to do. The customary rou- 
tine of life is an excellent support, a good 
thing to lean upon ; but we must not be 
enslaved by it. No one can dispense with 
routine, but we must sometimes rise above it. 



20 



MESSAGES OF 



The danger in this maxim is that it may lead 
to narrowness, to moving in a rut, caring 
for no one outside of our own circle, taking 
no interest in the concerns of humanity 
around us. 

The nearest duty may be that which is 
not nearest in space or time, but in heart 
and life. 



" T ET the dead bury their dead, but go 
thou and preach the kingdom of God." 
Dreamy meditators on the past, active strivers 
in the present, hopeful prophets of the fut- 
ure, preach, all of you, the kingdom of God 
by faith, by hope, by love. As time and all 
of its works, possessions, joys, is passing 
rapidly away, secure that which is unchang- 
ing and eternal. Have faith in God, — faith, 
not opinions or dead belief, but faith: faith 
which learns to see God present in nature, 
present in providence, present in the soul, 
which finds him in all changes, him in all 
joys and sorrows, him in the near duty of 
the hour, him in the large vision of the ages. 
Have hope, active hope, which shall enable 
you to work in the cause of justice and hu- 
manity ; to work, though in a minority ; to 
work, though no success or reputation seems 
to come to you. Work, not merely conscien- 
tiously, but hopefully, and you will work 
successfully. Hope to do some good thing 
for some one. Hope to make joy and peace 



January 20. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 2 1 

where you go and where you stay. Hope to 
serve God by serving man. 

And, most of all, have love. If there is 
any bitterness in your heart toward any 
human being, root it out. It is a corroding 
poison in your soul. Get rid of it. Love : 
that is, go out of yourself ; go forth in sym- 
pathy with others ; go forth to do them good 
by the power of God in your own soul, by 
the grace of God in your own heart. By your 
own hope of a grand future lift others out of 
their scepticism, their doubts, their despair. 
These things shall last. They shall not pass 
away. Nothing can separate us from the 
love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord. Faith, hope, and love, the heavenly 
sisters, the three Christian graces, like, yet 
unlike, — these three shall cause that you be 
not barren nor unfruitful. Begin life so, and 
it will pass joyfully to its close. 



January 21. 

PROGRESS in the sense of acquisition 
is something, but progress in the sense 
of being is a great deal more. To grow 
higher, deeper, wider as the years go on, to 
conquer difficulties, and acquire more and 
more power, to feel all one's faculties unfold- 
ing, and truth descending into the soul, — this 
makes life worth living. 

Education, in the true sense, is not mere 
instruction. It is the unfolding of the whole 
human nature. It is growing up in all things 



22 



MESSAGES OF 



to our highest possibility. This is a life- 
work, — a work in which our teachers are the 
heavens and the earth, day and night, work 
and rest, nature and society, heavenly inspira- 
tions and human sympathies, success and 
failure, sickness, pain, bereavement, all of 
this great human life. And with all this 
teaching there must be the earnest desire 
and purpose in our own soul to grow, to be- 
come larger, deeper, higher, nobler year by 
year. 



HESE things may teach us the grandeur 



1 of our lives. Vast principles are in- 
volved in all that we do or omit to do each 
day. Every day we rise to a great career, a 
grand opportunity. Into the smallest word 
and act we may put the most divine spirit. 
We may walk every day into heaven as we 
walk down the street or we may walk into 
hell. If we resolve on a noble and generous 
direction of our life, angels and archangels, 
holy and pure spirits, will be our companions 
and inward monitors. 



SINGLE act of genuine, sincere, thor- 



a higher plane ; and our whole life proceeds 
henceforth by a nobler, manlier measure. 



January 22. 




January 23. 




fidelity raises us at once to 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 2$ 

We have all seen instances of this. We have 
known men make what seemed a hard sacri- 
fice for duty ; but after that hour their mind, 
heart, and whole nature were elevated and 
ennobled, they were henceforth new creat- 
ures. A genuine good action has a trans- 
forming efficacy on the character. We are 
not the same afterwards as before. Pray for 
the opportunity of doing such an act ; pray 
for the chance of making some great sacrifice, 
or, rather, find such an opportunity for your- 
self. Look for it, for it is very nigh thee 
now. Angel opportunities come to us every 
day, and we entertain them unawares. 



January 24. 

HOW many noble enterprises there are in 
this community to which men and 
women are devoting time, thought, strength, 
heart, life, and only ask of us a little sympa- 
thy and a little aid ! Some labor for the 
poor, some for the children who have no 
homes nor friends, some for those who have 
fallen into temptation, some for the poor ani- 
mals, mute sufferers, unable to complain of 
their wrongs, some for neglected infants, 
some for aged people left alone in the world, 
some for young men thrown amid the risks 
of a great city. All they ask of us is to 
help them in their work; but how many of us 
think that, on the whole, we are not our 
brother's keeper ! 



2 4 



MESSAGES OE 



January 25. 

THE Lord never meant that we should 
make of our immediate and daily work 
prison walls to shut ourselves in, so as to 
take no part in the vast interests of humanity. 
Every man stands under an arch of heaven, 
infinite in extent, with the constellations of 
the universe lighting their solemn fires above 
him every night, and the unwearied sun 
marching over his head every day. We all 
belong to the whole of God's world, and noth- 
ing which concerns it ought to find us indif- 
ferent. When we walk in the woods, the 
sweet breath of the ferns takes us back to 
past geologic ages ; the fragrance of the firs 
and pines recall the Psalms of David and the 
hymns of the Vedas. " Over us soars the 
eternal sky, full of light and of Deity." It is 
not meant that we should live to ourselves : 
we are all called on to live for every truth, 
every human interest, every human need, as 
the Lord sends them to us or sends us to 
them. 

January 26. 

A CHILD beginning to walk takes every 
step by a separate act of will. Begin- 
ning to read, he looks at every letter. After 
a while he walks and reads by a habit which 
has become involuntary. 

So, also, it is with man's moral and spirit- 
ual nature. By practice he forms habits, re- 
quiring no exercise of will except at the be- 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



25 



ginning of the series of acts. The law of 
association does the rest. 

To him who hath shall be given. As vol- 
untary acts are transformed into habits, the 
will is set free to devote itself to higher ef- 
forts and larger attainments. After giving 
to good objects for a while from principle, we 
give without any effort. Self-control becomes 
habitual. We rule over our spirit, repress 
ill-temper, keep down bad feelings, first by 
an effort, afterwards with ease. 

If it were not for some such law of accumu- 
lation as this, the work of life would have to 
be begun forever anew. Formation of char- 
acter would be impossible. We should be in- 
capable of progress, our whole strength being 
always employed in battling with our first 
enemies, learning evermore anew our earliest 
lessons. 

This is the reward of all virtue, the punish- 
ment of all wrong-doing, that right and wrong 
actions gradually harden into character. 
The reward of the good man is that, having 
chosen truth and pursued it, it becomes at 
last a part of his own nature, a happy com- 
panion of all his life. The comdemnation of 
the bad man is that, when light has come 
into the world, he has chosen darkness ; and 
so the light within him becomes darkness. 

January 27. 

THE highest graces of all — faith, hope, 
and love — obey the same law. By 
trusting in God when we hardly see him at 



26 



MESSAGES OF 



all, we come at last to realize, as by another 
sense, his divine presence in all things. By- 
praying to him when we can only say, " O 
God, — if there be a God, — save my soul, if 
I have a soul," we at last learn to talk with 
this heavenly friend just as we would with an 
earthly friend ; and as, on a summer's day, 
when we sit among the pines, though we do 
not see the wind nor know whence it cometh 
or whither it goeth, we yet hear its gentle 
voice above our heads, and feel its cool 
breath on our cheek, so, though we do not 
know how God answers prayer, we have the 
sense of strength, of content, of kindly pur- 
pose, of love, joy, and peace, making our 
whole life useful to others and satisfactory to 
ourselves. So faith in God. at first an effort, 
at last becomes instinctive. 

Thus, too, faith in immortality solidifies 
into an instinct. As we live from and for 
infinite, divine, eternal realities, these become 
a part of our knowledge. Socrates did not 
convince himself of his immortality so much 
by his arguments ; but, by spending a long 
life in intimate converse with the highest 
truths and noblest ends, he at last reached 
the point where he could not help believing 
in immortality. As the pure in heart see 
God, so the pure in heart also see immortality. 
Death fades away, and becomes nothing. 
" He who believes in me," said Jesus, "can- 
not die." " He who enters into my thoughts 
sympathizes with my purposes, partakes of 
my spirit, knows that death is nothing." 
Thus it is that Christ abolishes death. The 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



27 



true resurrection is rising with Christ to a 
higher life. As the apostle says, " If ye, 
then, be risen with Christ, seek the things 
that are above." 

The moral of all this is evident. Every 
man, every woman, every child, has some 
talent, some power, some opportunity of gain- 
ing good and doing good. Each day offers 
us some occasion of using this talent. As we 
use it, it gradually increases, improves, be- 
comes native to the character. As we neg- 
lect it, it dwindles, withers, and disappears. 
This is the stern but benign law by which 
we live. This makes character real and en- 
during ; this makes progress possible ; this 
turns virtue into goodness, and men into 
angels. 



HE nearest duty may sometimes be to 



I ourselves, to make ourselves fit and 
able to be of use to others. 

Before the mechanic begins his work, no 
matter how important it is, his first duty is to 
sharpen his tools and put them in order. So 
it may be our first duty to put our body and 
mind in order before we begin any other 
duty, however necessary. We often say we 
have no time to rest, no time for recreation, 
no time for reading, no time for outside in- 
terests, no time for church work, our business 
is so pressing, we have so much to do. Men 
refuse to give themselves a little relaxation : 
and so they break down at last, and then can 
do no work for months or years. 



January 28. 




28 



MESSAGES OF 



January 29. 

SOMETIMES it is the soul which needs to 
be put in order before we can do any 
duty as we ought. If the soul is sick, we 
shall put no heart into anything we do. To 
finish any work well, we must have faith, 
courage, confidence, and be able to put our 
heart into it. But, if the heart is cold and 
dead, we shall do everything in a cold and 
dead way. The nearest duty, therefore, may 
be to take care of our mind, our heart, and 
our soul. To come into the presence of God, 
to give ourselves up to him, to begin a new 
life of obedience, faith, submission, patience, 
hope, — this may be our nearest duty. 



January 30. 

THE best way to escape many difficulties 
which beset us on a lower plane is to go 
up to a higher one. It is sometimes easier to 
to go up than to stand still where we are. In 
climbing a precipitous rock, if you stop, you 
may grow dizzy, and be in danger of falling ; 
but, if you push upward, you are safe. So 
sometimes, if you find it hard to do your 
duty, try to do more, not less. Adopt a higher 
standard, go up to a higher ground. There 
you have more motive, purer air, better inspi- 
ration. If it is hard to be a moderately good 
Christian, try to become a better one : you 
will often find that easier. To give yourself 
wholly to what is true and good is easier than 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



2 9 



to halt between two opinions. When you try 
to compromise between right and wrong, to 
be moderately just, to be truthful to a cer- 
tain extent, and religious without ceasing to 
be worldly, it is a hard matter. But, if we 
say, " We will do whatsoever things are just, 
whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things 
are noble, " it simplifies the matter. 



HE power of Jesus over the human heart 



I has been just here. He saw the evil of 
man, but also saw his good. He saw that 
man is a sinner, but knew that his sin is an 
alien element, not natural to him. Jesus ap- 
pealed to his better nature. Men of the 
world assume that man is essentially selfish, 
and to be moved by selfish considerations. 
But Christianity has called on him to make 
sacrifices; and he has denied himself, taken 
up his cross, and followed his Master to the 
ends of the world, seeking to save souls. 
Man is sensual, fond of ease, fond of pleas- 
ure ; but, at the voice of Christ, he has re- 
nounced the world, and devoted strength and 
life to heroic labors for his Master. Man 
loves to get and keep money ; but Christ has 
taught him to find a higher pleasure in using 
it generously for great purposes. Jesus, be- 
cause he has said -to us, " Go up higher," has 
infused a new element into the world. 



January 31 




jFebmar^ 



PRAYER. 



February i. 

NO man can work to much purpose unless 
he has peace within, unless the centre 
of the soul be calm and serene. Therefore, 
Jesus says, " Come unto me, all ye that labor 
and are heavy laden, and I will give you 
rest." I 
Jesus gives us rest by giving us a sense of 
an infinite love around us and within us, of 
a perfect providence watching over us, of a 
fulness of goodness in the universe. He 
makes us feel that life is worth living ; that 
every day is a new and sacred gift sent us 
direct from God ; that God has hidden in 
every hour unseen, mysterious blessings ; 
that we gain good and do good even when 
we do not know it. 

February 2. 

HE who labors for man, with no faith in 
God, labors to little good. He who 
worships God without serving man worships 



34 



MESSAGES OE 



to little good. Sleep and wakefulness, pas- 
sive life and active life, faith and works, piety 
and morality, love to God and love to man, — 
these are the great polar forces of physical, 
mental, and moral life, which act and react 
on each other, and keep us in a healthy con- 
dition. 

February 3. 

WE must sometimes rest even from duty 
and effort ; but the true rest to refresh 
conscience and spirit is to come near to God 
in nature or the Bible or the closet of prayer. 
Work and prayer should alternate like day 
and night in the Christian life. There are 
two spheres — one of duty, the other of de- 
votion — into which man needs alternately to 
go. They ought not to be confused. They 
are distinct. When a man says, " To work is 
to pray," he confuses them. To work is not 
to pray : it is to work. When a man makes 
prayer his work, and gives his life, like the 
monks of Paganism, Mohammedanism, and 
Christianity, to an abstract, mystical devotion, 
he confuses them. You cannot work well, 
except you stop working sometimes and pray. 
You cannot pray well, unless you stop pray- 
ing sometimes to work. 

February 4. 

HERE is a man harassed with anxiety and 
care about his business, about his 
health, about his family. Here is a woman 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 35 



harassed with care about her sick child. 
They both think they ought to be anxious: 
they try to be anxious. They never throw off 
the burden, and go into God's glad presence, 
giving up all care and anxiety. They should 
give all their thought for a time to their 
duties, put their whole heart into them, and 
then rest in God's blessed love, and cast all 
their cares on him who cares for them. Thus 
could they work better, and conquer their 
difficulties better ; for care and anxiety un- 
nerve the soul, and to try to live in anxiety 
is like trying to live without sleep. 



February 5. 

1MUST stand still each day, and think of 
what God has done for me, — how he has 
blessed me with home, friends, love, oppor- 
tunity of knowledge, and rich influences of 
culture. I must consider how he has sent to 
me wise teachers and generous, loving hearts 
to stand by me amid the storms of life. I 
must remember how he has put dear little chil- 
dren in my arms, and wise and holy men and 
women near me ; how he has borne with me 
in my wilfulness and pride and folly, and re- 
strained me from going into irremediable 
evil; how, when I have prayed, because I 
could not do any longer without prayer, he 
has hastened to meet my ignorant supplica- 
tion, and answered it, oh, so sweetly ! filling 
my soul down to its very depths with the 
peace of God passing all understanding. 



36 



MESSAGES OF 



February 6. 

IF you have any trial which seems intoler- 
able, pray, — pray that it be relieved or 
changed. We may pray for anything, not 
wrong in itself, with perfect freedom, if we do 
not pray selfishly. One disabled from duty by 
sickness may pray for health, that he may do 
his work ; or one hemmed in by internal im- 
pediments may pray for utterance, that he may 
serve better the truth and the right. Or, if 
we have a besetting sin, we may pray to be 
delivered from it, in order to serve God and 
man, and not be ourselves Satans to mislead 
and destroy. But the answer to the prayer 
may be, as it was to Paul, not the removal of 
the thorn, but, instead, a growing insight into 
its meaning and value. The voice of God in 
our soul may show us, as we look up to him, 
that his strength is enough to enable us to 
bear it. 

February 7. 

RABIA. 

RABIA, sick upon her bed, 
By two saints was visited, — 

Holy Malik, Hassan wise, — 
Men of mark in Moslem eyes. 

Hassan said, "Whose prayer is pure 
Will God's chastisements endure." 

Malik, from a deeper sense, 
Uttered his experience : 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



37 



"He who loves his Master's choice 
Will in chastisement rejoice" 

Rabia saw some selfish will 
In their maxims lingering still, 

And replied, " O men of grace, 
He who sees his Master's face 

"Will not in his prayer recall 
That he is chastised at all!" 

From the German of Tkoluck. 



E pray against our besetting sin. But 



VV God may answer this prayer, not by 
removing the temptation, but by giving us 
more confidence in him, more sense of his 
pardoning love in Christ, more steadfast reli- 
ance, more of habitual living with God. In- 
stead of removing the temptation, God and 
Christ come and dwell with us. " Most 
gladly, therefore, we glory in our infirmities, 
that the peace of Christ may rest upon us." 
God does not take away the Red Sea, nor the 
wilderness, nor Jordan, but goes with us 
through them all, — a cloud by day, a pillar of 
fire by night. Nothing brings us so near to 
God as the sense of our spiritual and moral 
needs. 

The world advances through shadow as 
well as through sunshine. The heart grows 
great and noble by manfully meeting and 
bearing the trials of life. When we are weak, 
then we are strong. 



February 8. 




38 



MESSAGES OF 



February 9. 

TO cure sin is not so easy as many suppose. 
Restraint will not do it ; punishment 
will not do it ; fear will not do it. These 
are only John the Baptists going before the 
Lord. Love must do it, — Christian love, 
which takes men by the hand and helps them. 
Till the churches and society are ready to do 
this, there can be no reformation for society. 

Out of the heart are the issues of life. As 
a man thinks in his heart, so is he. What 
shall fill the heart with pure thoughts, noble 
desires, generous aspirations ? What shall 
purify it from evil wishes and low imagina- 
tions ? 

The only way to get rid of bad thoughts is 
to have good ones : the only way to control 
bad feelings is to cherish pure and generous 
ones. Truth only can drive out error. You 
must love your enemy if you would not hate 
him. 

February 10. 

SO life goes on. Let us live it as we 
ought, standing still from time to time, 
to see and consider God's works, and then go 
out to serve him, standing in our place, and 
always loyal and faithful at our place. God 
sends times for work and times for consider- 
ation. He sends us homes where we may 
rest and consider. He sends calm evening 
and dewy night, the companionship of wise 
and loving hearts, and the peace of this holy 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 39 

day. Into these oratories of thought, love, 
and prayer, let us go to consider and ponder : 
and then let us go forth to do the great will 
of the Master, and let life be better for our 
being in it ; and when we are old, if God 
grants us to be old, we shall look from that 
mountain top of age into the promised land of 
a rejoicing and happy future. 

February 11. 

BUT how shall we always remember to do 
what we can? Who ever does all he 
can ? We are not always in the right mood, 
not always in the best temper. The power 
may be there, but the spirit may be wanting. 
How, then, shall we learn to use opportunities, 
and not neglect them, not pass them by ? 

Here, as always, come in the need and the 
help of Christian faith. Faith not only leads 
to work, but the effort to work leads to faith. 
Always the deepest religious experience is 
born of the strongest moral purpose. When- 
ever men seriously try to do right, they feel 
the need of some help from on high. If a 
man should say to me, I do not believe in 
religion : I believe in morality. If I do right, 
I believe that is enough, I should answer, 
I believe so, too. Now go to work in ear- 
nest to do right and to be good. Begin every 
day with a determination not to omit any op- 
portunity. Watch and see if you fail. Do 
not drift, but steer. I think you will find re- 
ligion a necessary help to enable you to meet 



40 



MESSAGES OF 



your own standard. The sense of God's 
presence, his influence, his readiness to give 
you good thoughts and good inspirations, will 
lead to the best morality. 

It was a great purpose in the life of Jesus 
to show us that we can have that help, have 
it now, have it always. His gospel is the rev- 
elation to the soul of an ever-present love, 
waiting to be gracious. " Ask, and ye shall 
receive ; seek, and ye shall find ; knock, and 
it shall be opened to you. For every one 
that asketh, receiveth ; and he that seeketh, 
findeth; and to him that knocks it shall be 
opened.'' Every one ! Then it is a law that 
prayer is answered. It is not a caprice, but 
a divine method, sure and certain as any law 
of nature. The law of gravitation is not 
more unerring and constant than the law 
which ordains that whenever one cries to the 
Father, asking spiritual help, the spiritual 
help is given. 

February 12. 

IF, then, we have these opportunities to 
meet every day ; if we are so apt to pass 
them by ; if it is so hard to be in the right 
spirit ; if, without such a right spirit, we are 
sure to do what we ought not, and to omit to 
do what we ought, — then we are like the little 
hungry child, who needs food and cannot get 
it for himself. Will not God certainly feed 
our soul with inward strength if we believe 
enough in him to go to him ? I believe that 
this is a universal law. I do not think that 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 4* 

any one, wishing to do right, and finding it 
hard to do so, but will certainly find himself 
lifted to a higher plane by simply looking up, 
and saying, "O my Father, feed my soul 
with thy light and thy love." He will find 
that he is able to say the right thing at the 
right time, to do the right thing, to be in 
the right tone and temper. Whereas before 
he was apt to be irritable, now he is patient ; 
before he was thoughtless, now he is con- 
siderate; before he was forgetful of others, 
now he remembers them. There has come 
into the depths of his soul a power to direct 
his thoughts and words and actions aright. 
And this is what is meant by the influence 
of the Spirit. It is felt in its results and 
fruits, — love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gen- 
tleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and tem- 
perance. 

February 13. 

IF, then, we do not wish to have a life full 
of lost opportunities, we must be every 
day prepared to meet them. And, as we can- 
not prepare ourselves sufficiently by any 
amount of discipline or any strength of de- 
termination, we have a right to believe that, 
by looking up and opening our soul to God, 
he will give us the power of meeting each 
opportunity aright. 

Without this faith, how sure we are to post- 
pone any difficult work ; to say, " I will do it 
at a more convenient season." But, with this 
confidence in an ever-present help, we can 



42 



MESSAGES OF 



meet every occasion ; and we shall be able to 
understand the meaning of the Christian 
paradox, " When I am weak, then am I 
strong," or that other saying of the apostle, 
" The life I live in the flesh I live by faith in 
the Son of God." 

February 14. 

FOR here in truth, to my mind, lie the em- 
phasis and essence of Christ's teaching. 
He leads us, through the law to the gospel, 
through duty to trust, through work to prayer, 
through the sense of responsibility to the 
sense of dependence. Christian faith is not a 
doctrine or a ritual, not a system of ethics or 
an emotion of piety, not profession or form. 
It is the law of God fulfilled by faith in the 
love of God. It is inflowing strength with 
which to do our daily work. It is the happy 
consciousness that God is around us with his 
perpetual care, beneath us with his supreme 
power, above us with his providential bless- 
ing, within us with his constant inspiration. 
This faith is the saving faith. It saves us 
from doubt and despair. It nils the heart 
with hope. It causes each day to dawn 
serene and peaceful, each night to close quiet 
and full of content. Trials may come, will 
come, lonely hours, the loss of those we love, 
disappointed hopes. But with these trials 
strength also will come with which to bear 
them. More than this, we may go wrong. 
We may neglect and forget opportunities. 
We may forget to pray, and then we shall 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 43 

find ourselves relapsing into the old routine 
of weakness and sin. But with this differ- 
ence, — that we know the way to return. We 
know that we have only to turn round and 
begin again, with a greater humility and dis- 
trust of ourselves, with a greater trust in God, 
and that the sense of his forgiving love will 
descend once more into our hearts. For for- 
giveness, too, comes not by caprice, but by 
law. " If we confess our sins, God is faithful 
and just to forgive us our sins." Observe, 
not " He is merciful," but " He is faithful 
and just." It is, then, a law that, when we 
are willing to look our sins in the face, and 
see ourselves as we are, with that sight and 
confession of evil we are helped out of the 
evil into good. 

This is the sum and substance of personal 
religion. This is the " life hid with Christ 
in God." It is the steady purpose of doing 
what we can in the direction of duty, and the 
steady trust in God for power with which to 
do it. Either of the two alone is not enough. 
But, joined together, they are sufficient to lift 
us above the danger of lost opportunities. 



February 15. 

1 BELIEVE that work may be a sacrament 
by which the divine grace may be medi- 
ated ; that love may descend into the soul by 
means of labor; that duty may be the step 
upward into piety ; that we may be full of 
God while engaged in our daily work ; and 



44 



MESSAGES OF 



that what is often called mere morality may 
be the natural way to an inward spiritual 
life. 

Thus may the grace of God which brings 
salvation come to those who are seeking to 
serve their fellow-man. Work may lead us 
into prayer. We may learn to pray, not as a 
duty, not as a sentiment, not from sympathy, 
not for our own salvation, not by an intellect- 
ual piety, but because . we need the help of 
God to do what we want to do for man. 

There is work which can be done, perhaps, 
without God, — mechanical work, routine work. 
But, whenever an occasion occurs in which we 
wish to help others, we may throw ourselves 
on the help of God. We may then say to 
God : " My Father, I am here, ready to do 
anything I can. Show me how to do it." 
And then, by some sure but mysterious law, 
the way is opened, the help comes. We see 
then that, as faith leads to work, so, also, work 
may lead to faith. 

February 16. 

THIS is the new form of piety which is to 
be, the Christ which is to come. It is 
the piety coming from work as a sacrament, 
the religious form of duty. The moment we 
undertake any really Christian work we need 
this kind of piety. Here, for instance, is a 
young girl who takes a class in a Sunday- 
school. She desires not merely to hear 
children repeat lessons from the Bible, but to 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



45 



lead them to God. She wishes to put into 
their soul some principle by which they can 
be kept safe amid the trials and temptations 
which may come to them. But how can she 
ever do such a great work? She feels wholly 
inadequate to the task. She is discouraged 
when she thinks of it. Therefore, she may 
very likely give it up, and say she is not fit to 
be a teacher, that she does not know how, 
that she is not good enough, and the like. 
But suppose she believed that, whenever we 
wish to do any Christian work for others, 
power will come to us if we ask for it. Then, 
instead of giving up her class, she will simply 
ask before each meeting that God may help 
her to do them real good ; and, if she finds 
that prayer always answered, she will go on 
with increasing courage and faith. 



February 17. 

GOD gives into our hands the keys with 
which we may open heaven to others. 
Not to Peter alone, not to the apostles alone, 
but to all of us, he says, " What ye bind on 
earth shall be bound in heaven; what ye 
loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." 
Whenever we are faithful to our convictions, 
true to the light God shows to us, unselfish 
and generous, then we open the gateway of 
heaven to those who are with us. Whenever 
we are selfish and unbelieving and hard, we 
shut the gateway. The spirit we are in inev- 
itably communicates itself by our voice and 



46 



MESSAGES OF 



tone, and preaches to others truth, generosity, 
humility, faith, or preaches unbelief, selfish- 
ness, doubt, despair. Influence goes from us, 
at every moment, for good or evil. We say, 
by our state of mind, that there is something 
real in truth, in virtue, in love ; that immor- 
tality is not a dream ; that heaven is close at 
hand ; that life is rich in great opportunities. 
We say this every moment, when we are in a 
right state of mind ; and, in saying this, we 
unlock heaven to others, and lead them in. 
Or we say to others, by our formality, by 
our coldness, by our self-seeking, that religion 
is empty ; that Christianity is only a name ; 
that life is a weariness; that all things are 
vanity ; that love is an illusion ; that the gos- 
pel is a cheat and a lie. And, saying this, 
we lock the doors of heaven ; we turn away 
from God those who are seeking him ; we 
make infidels and sceptics ; Ave corrupt inno- 
cent and childlike hearts by our worldliness. 
Such eternal consequences follow our trivial 
earthly action. So it is that what we bind 
on earth is bound in heaven, that what we 
loose on earth is loosed in heaven. 



ERHAPS you are asked to be a visitor to 



1 the poor. This is a difficult duty. To 
go as a friend, not as a patron ; to help, and 
not to harm ; to make them feel that you are 
a brother or a sister, not an official visitor ; to 
say the right thing, the wisest thing ; to put a 



February 18. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 47 



new spirit of faith, hope, cheer, confidence, 
into their hearts, — who can do this by any 
power of his own ? But, if we believe that 
there is a divine law, working as regularly as 
the laws of physics and chemistry, by which 
prayer gives us power which we should not 
have unless we prayed, then we can go to any 
task, however difficult, with courage and faith. 

How we shrink from going to see one in 
terrible distress, — one on whom an awful 
calamity has fallen ! We say : " What can I 
do ? I can do nothing/' But, if we believed 
that God would certainly give us power to say 
the right word, to pour life and comfort into 
that heart, if we asked for such power, then 
we should go instantly and cheerfully, because 
we should not go in our own strength, but re- 
lying on God. 

I am often called to see the dying or the 
bereaved. Once I was afraid to go, would 
postpone it till I could think of the right thing 
to say. Now I go at once, because I know 
that the right thing will be given me in that 
hour. And the promise of the Master seems 
to be verified : " Take no thought what to say 
or speak, for it shall be given you in that 
hour what ye ought to say." 



February 19. 

JESUS says: "If ye ask anything in my 
name, I will do it. Ask and receive, 
that your joy may be full." Again he says 
that God will give all things when we ask in 



4 8 



MESSAGES OF 



the name of Christ. Now, to " ask in the 
name of Christ " is not to use the word 
" Christ." It is not merely to say, " We ask 
it through Jesus Christ." It is to ask in the 
spirit of Christ. But the spirit of Christ is 
that which does good to others. When we 
wish to do good to others, we are in the spirit 
of Christ. If we pray for power to help 
others, we are praying in the name of Christ. 
Then we may ask anything, and be sure that 
it will be done. Some power, faith, love, and 
wisdom will come to us by which to help 
others. 

Thus may piety be born of duty, and work 
be a sacrament helping us to come into the 
love of God. Other kinds of piety are good, 
but this may be the best of all. The piety is 
good which comes to the human soul through 
churches and worship, through sympathy and 
communion, through the sense of sin and the 
sense of forgiveness, through intellectual as- 
piration scaling the heights of universal law. 
But possibly the best of all may be the faith 
born of work, the piety which comes through 
duty, the prayer which is made for power to 
help our fellow-men. 

This piety which is born out of morality 
will have this advantage. It will come nearer 
than any other to the prayer without ceasing. 
As these Christian duties come, not on Sun- 
day only, but all through the week, this will 
be a piety for all the working hours of life. 
As we see the results of this prayer, our faith 
will be continually growing stronger. 

No doubt, all forms of piety are meant to 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



49 



be united. The time will come in which we 
shall meet God in the church and also in the 
street, in the communion of saints and in the 
loneliness of the agony of the Garden, in 
the depths of spiritual thought and the daily 
life of duty. All will be steps of Jacob's 
ladder leading up to heaven, on which the 
angels of God will go up to carry prayers, 
and come down to bring blessings. 



February 20. 

IN piety and prayer we ought to begin at 
the beginning. It is a curious fact that 
the Church has often taught that men must 
begin at the end. Eminent theologians have 
said that one must not pray at all until con- 
verted and regenerate. Some unregenerate 
persons prayed to Christ when he was in the 
world, and he answered their prayer. The 
Roman centurion, who worshipped Jupiter 
and Mars, the woman of Phoenicia, — these 
prayed to Jesus ; and he helped them. Many 
persons are taught to believe that they cannot 
pray aright until they are miraculously trans- 
formed and renewed. But Paul says, " That 
is not first which is spiritual, but that which 
is natural. " Natural prayer must precede 
spiritual. Begin by seeing God in nature, 
in providence, in life. Begin by saying: 
" God help me ! " " I thank thee, O Father ! ; ' 
" God forgive me ! " So a habit of prayer 
is formed, growing purer, loftier, more con- 
stant, more prevailing, more spiritual. It 



5° 



MESSAGES OF 



will be pervaded with the spirit of brother- 
hood and charity. God asks no service of 
us that he is not ready to help us to perform. 
He asks nothing but what it is good for us 
to do. And our first duty, under the gospel 
of Christ, is not to be afraid of God. The 
power of the gospel consists in enabling us 
to say, Abba, Father. When it has taught us 
to say that, it has done its work. It has then 
converted us, and made us like little children ; 
and so we can see the kingdom of heaven. 



HE law of vis i?iertice implies that, where 



1 there is the most power at last, there is 
the most difficulty at first. We cannot, then, 
expect that this great Christian faith in God, 
goodness, immortality, heaven, is to come 
without effort and struggle. We do not ac- 
quire this faith by reading books of theology 
or by a process of reasoning. It grows up by 
a long experience ; it is developed by a con- 
tinued discipline. As life goes on, our faith 
ought to grow deeper. We first believe in 
God and Christ and the future life, because 
these seem reasonable beliefs. But, as we 
live in them and from them, they become 
more and more real and certain. We learn 
by degrees to feel the presence of God in 
Nature and in our own soul ; we learn to 
have more and more faith in Christ as our 
great helper ; we learn to pray more and 
more in spirit and truth. The prayer of form 



February 21. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



is easy: the prayer of faith is one of the 
greatest efforts of which the human mind is 
capable. 

The law of inertia, therefore, seems to 
apply, not only in the physical order, but in 
the moral and spiritual order, too. It helps 
us to keep what we gain. It preserves the 
moral and spiritual forces. It is the secret of 
progress. It is the condition of the great 
ascent of man from earth to heaven, from 
good to better, from imperfect truth and 
goodness to that which is unchanging and 
eternal. 

February 22. 

BIRTHDAY OF WASHINGTON. 

SUCH souls never die : they only go out 
of sight. " Dying, behold they live ! " 
Their souls have passed into the heart of the 
nation. Death transforms them from an indi- 
vidual power among us into a universal pres- 
ence within us. So Washington has gone 
into the nation's life. 



February 23. 

THERE are three main conditions of ac- 
ceptable and availing prayer, according 
to the New Testament : One, that it shall be 
"in truth," or sincere; i.e., that we shall ask 
for what we really wish to have. Second, 
that it should be " in spirit," — i.e., in the 



5^ 



MESSAGES OF 



right spirit, in a Christian spirit; that is, 
again, that we should ask for what we oughl 
to wish to have. Thirdly, that it should be 
" in faith " ; that we should ask, believing that 
God will give it to us. Let us look at each 
of these conditions. 

A prayer, to be good for anything, ought to 
be " in truth." It ought to be sincere. We 
ought to ask for what we really wish. A 
great deal of prayer, especially of public 
prayer, is not sincere, and therefore is not 
true prayer. Listen to the prayers made in 
the pulpit. They are the prayers of saints, 
petitions for the highest spiritual blessings, 
utterances of the loftiest aspirations of which 
man is capable. But they are not offered by 
saints : the majority of the congregation are 
not saints, but sinners. Yet a lofty spiritual 
prayer, like the prayers in most churches and 
most religious books, is good to hear and 
read, because it lifts the soul. But I think 
the reason why it is so hard to join sincerely 
in most of the prayers uttered in church is 
that they go too high : they express not what 
we really wish, but what we think we ought to 
wish. 

Now, if we pray to God at all, we ought to 
say what we ourselves feel and think and 
desire, not what apostles and prophets and 
saints and angels feel and desire. 

Pray more or pray less, as your needs impel 
you. Only, when you pray, pray in spirit and 
in truth. Ask God for what you really want. 
Do not say a word until you can really put 
your heart into it. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. S3 



February 24. 



HE rest of the Lord's Day is not outward 



1 but inward, — a rest from anxiety, sor- 
row, and sin. It is the repose of reliance on 
an infinite care ; trust in an infinite providence 
always guiding us; confidence in the love of 
our Father waiting to forgive us whenever 
we turn to him. This is the reason for com- 
ing to church, that, together, in the company 
of Christian brethren, we may enter into this 
peace of God. This is what the church ought 
to do for us all. He who conducts the ser- 
vices should understand that this is the pur- 
pose of them ; and he should pray to God for 
power, wisdom, and inspiration of soul, that 
he may guide all the services to this end. 
The end of church-going is not to hear argu- 
ments and discussions about doctrines, not to 
listen to an essay or to go through a cere- 
mony, but to be renewed in the spirit of our 
minds, to be bathed once more by the spirit 
of God, and so enter into rest. 



PRAYER in church is well ; but how small 
a portion of our lives does that cover ! 
Prayer-meetings are useful, but they may not 
satisfy the thirst for God. The real home of 
prayer is in each separate soul ; and its true 
sphere is in every place, every work, every 
occupation where we find ourselves. The 
man of prayer is not the one who goes into a 




February 25. 



54 



MESSAGES OF 



monastery or a hermit's cell to pray so many 
hours a day, but he whose spirit and heart 
are in such communion with God that it is 
natural for him to look in and up while he 
is occupied with the stress of work or the con- 
tests of competition. This is to " pray with- 
out ceasing." 

How simple does religion become when re- 
duced to these two essential facts : first, the 
purpose of seeking for all that is true and 
good ; and, secondly, the reliance on an ever- 
present help to gain what we seek ! This is 
the life we all can live through faith in the 
son of God. The child who wishes to con- 
trol his temper, the school-boy working at his 
task, the mother in her household and nur- 
sery, the man of business in his office, — all 
can have this strength, and so have the essen- 
tial and vital element of prayer. Not, indeed, 
in a moment ; for all things come to us by de- 
grees. That which at first is foreign from our 
habits may at last become habitual, and that 
which is hard to believe at last self-evident. 
And, with a habit of inward prayer fully estab- 
lished, we are lifted into a realm of genuine 
peace, where there are no more impossible 
duties, no more crushing cares. Such a state 
we can attain ; and what better can we desire 
for ourselves and others than this ? 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



55 



February 26. 



HE essence of prayer is the sense of an 



1 ever-present divine love, always waiting 
to be gracious. When we attain to this feel- 
ing, it is not necessary to repeat formulas or 
to put our needs into words. To desire such 
help is to pray without ceasing. And with 
this conviction and desire we grow more cer- 
tain of the reality of the divine influence. 
God comes nearer to us inwardly day by day. 
We find that, when we are weak, then we are 
strong. 

There is no miracle in this, nothing excep- 
tional or unnatural. It is the most natural 
thing in the world that the spirit of God 
should enter every soul that is open to him. 
He fills our empty hearts with a sense of his 
divine presence and his divine love. 

With this view of prayer, as " the soul's 
sincere desire," it may become a vital ele- 
ment in human progress. If, as Emerson 
says, " Power and aim are the two halves of 
human felicity," then conscience, which keeps 
us to a pure aim, and prayer, which feeds us 
inwardly with power, will make the highest 
joy and peace of the soul. Prayer, then, 
really gives us daily bread. Whenever a diffi- 
cult duty comes, we look up and receive 
strength. When we are in doubt, we look up 
for a moment, and light comes to us. Prayer 
is essentially for daily work, — for home, shop, 
school-house, lawyer's office, the legislative 
assembly, the mechanic's bench. 




MESSAGES OF 



February 27. 

FORTUNATE, thrice fortunate, are those 
who can believe in this infinite presence 
of perfect love, around them, above them, 
and within their very soul. Blessed, thrice 
blessed, are those who have learned by expe- 
rience that there is always an answer to every 
sincere prayer, — an answer which comes, ful- 
filling some divine law, not necessarily 
in outward events, but in inward strength, 
knowledge, and peace. Blessed are those to 
whom this vast universe is not a dreary desert, 
but the house of a heavenly Father, in which 
are many mansions, suitable to all the needs 
of all his children. Blessed are those who, 
while they believe in universal, unchanging 
law, see in this majestic order of Nature an 
endless adaptation to the wants of all, and 
whose hearts tend upward to God by a steady 
outflow of trust, hope, and love. This is the 
prayer of faith, which is never without an an- 
swer. 

When one who has all his life prayed only 
the prayer of form, at last opens his real soul 
to God, the spirits in heaven may say to each 
other with joy, " Behold, he prayeth ! " When 
the worldly man, hardened in outward routine, 
is moved by some deep experience to pray, 
there may be joy in the presence of the 
angels of God. When the good man who has 
tried hard to do his duty, but only in his own 
strength, feels the need of some higher help, 
then it may add something even to the joy of 
heaven. And this prayer may be answered, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



57 



as Paul's prayer was answered. The Lord 
answered Paul's prayer by sending Ananias 
to him to comfort and teach him. Some 
blessed human sympathy may be the answer 
which God sends to our prayer, — some kindly 
human love, some unexpected word of human 
counsel. When we are moved, we know not 
why, to say a word of encouragement or do 
some good action, perhaps the Lord is mak- 
ing us his mediator to answer the secret 
prayer of one of our human brethren. Let 
us, then, not resist such influences, but be 
willing to be led by the spirit of God, to be- 
come his agents for good in the world. 



February 28. 

" HE WHO ASKS RECEIVES." 

ALLAH, Allah ! " cried the sick man, 
racked with pain the long night thro', 
Till with prayer his heart was tender, till 
his lips like honey grew. 

But at morning came the Tempter ; said, 

" Call louder, child of pain ! 
See if Allah ever hear, or answer, ' Here 

am I ' again." 

Like a stab, the cruel cavil through his 

brain and pulses went, 
To his heart an icy coldness, to his brain 

a darkness, sent. 



58 FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 

Then before him stands Elias ; says, " My 

child, why thus dismayed ? 
Dost repent thy former fervor ? Is thy 

soul of prayer afraid ? " 

"Ah!" he cried: "I've called so often, 
never heard the 6 Here am I.' 

And I thought, God will not pity, will not 
turn on me his eye." 

Then the grave Elias answered, " God 

said, ' Rise, Elias, go, — 
Speak to him, the sorely tempted ; lift him 

from his gulf of woe. 

" * Tell him that his very longing is itself an 
answering cry, 
That his prayer, " Come, gracious Allah," 
is my answer, " Here am I." ' " 

Every inmost aspiration is God's angel 
undefiled ; 

And in every " O my Father ! " slumbers 
deep a " Here, my child ! " 

Translation, through the German of Tholnck, 
from the Persian. 



flDarcb, 



GOD. 



March i. 



WE have a Friend who knows us better 
than we know ourselves, loves us 
better than we love ourselves, helps us when 
we cannot help ourselves, forgives us when 
we cannot forgive ourselves, and in the 
midst of our deepest despair breathes into 
our heart the breath of a new and divine 
hope. 



E cannot know God until we love God. 



VV Jesus teaches us to know God by 
showing him to us as our Father and Friend. 
It is by coming to him day by day, and trust- 
ing in him and leaning on his help, and be- 
lieving in his providence and conversing with 
him in aspirations of prayer, that we come at 
last to be as certain of God's presence and 
love as of our own existence. 



March 2. 




62 



MESSAGES OF 



March 3. 

" My heart and flesh cry out for the living God I " 

THE God whom we need, whom the heart 
and flesh of man desire, is the living 
God. Not a mere Law of the Universe, nor 
a Spirit of Intellectual Beauty, nor a First 
Cause only, nor the Unknown and Unknow- 
able Substance behind all phenomena, nor the 
Absolute Being outside of all relations and 
devoid of qualities, nor the three Subsistences 
in one Essence. These are the gods of theo- 
logians and philosophers. But the human 
heart has always cried out for the living God, 
the personal Friend, the God who is a Pro- 
tector and a Shield, in whom we can trust ; in 
short, our Father, the God and Father of Jesus 
Christ. Life is love ; only when we love, we 
live; he who loves the most is most alive. 
The living God is the God who loves. The 
God who is infinite life must have infinite 
love. He bends over his universe with a di- 
vine tenderness, and not a creature lives any- 
where but exists because God loves it. 



March 4. 

AN is not himself when away from God. 
Man needs for growth and develop- 
ment, for the full action of his powers, the 
sense of the divine presence and the divine 
love. The man who has no faith in God is 
only half a man. Half of his nature, and 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



63 



that the higher half, is passive and dormant. 
He is away from his true home, a poor wan- 
derer in a foreign land. 

In the irreligious man the higher nature 
is asleep or dead. The conscience is stupe- 
fied, the reason sophisticated, faith enslaved 
to superstitious beliefs. The love of truth is 
often perverted into the love of error, fault- 
finding, captious criticism, perpetual denial. 
When he becomes a religious man, what takes 
place ? He says, " I will arise, and go to my 
Father." He has come to believe that he 
has a Father and a Friend to whom he can 
go, on whom he can rely, in whom he may 
trust. 



March 5. 

SCIENCE has enlarged our conception of 
God by enlarging our conception of the 
universe. Before science did this, our little 
world was considered to be in the centre of 
creation ; and it was believed that the sun, 
moon, and stars revolved around it every 
twenty-four hours. Our little planet was the 
most important place which God had created, 
and the Lord was supposed to have this for 
his chief care. But astronomy came, and 
showed us that the earth was one among 
myriads of planets, the sun only one of many 
million suns, our world but a speck in the 
heavens. And so with our knowledge of the 
universe grew our idea of its Creator and 
Governor. 



64 



MESSAGES OF 



March 6. 

THERE is no one wholly without God in 
the world. There is no one who does 
not have an altar, at least to the " unknown 
God," in his heart. 

Many men erect this altar to God under 
the name of law. They worship the order of 
the universe, and they do not know that they 
are worshipping God. They need to see that 
this magnificent stability of the universe, this 
grand web of law which they study and adore, 
is not dead law, but living law ; that it is the 
perpetual act of God. They need to see that 
what they call law is God's steady and uni- 
form course of action, and that behind and 
within all this law is divine love, all things 
working together for good. 



March 7. 

I AM persuaded that this increasing sense 
of the ineffable greatness of God is that 
which makes prayer now more difficult. But, 
at this point, Jesus comes to reveal another 
aspect of the Deity, as a personal friend of 
every child. He is the Father of the prodigal 
son, whom he sees while yet a great way off, 
no less than of the obedient son who is 
always with him. Through him we have 
access to the Father. That is the spirit put 
into our heart, which enables us to say, 
"Abba, Father!" Thus we, who were afar 
off, when we saw God only as the Infinite 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 65 

Source of all things, can come nigh to him, 
and can commune with him. 



March 8. 

SCIENCE remains cold, material, dead, so 
long as it is irreligious, because unspirit- 
ualized. If men of science only knew it, they 
would see that they are ignorantly worship- 
ping God when they worship law. It is not 
necessary for them to abandon science in 
order to be religious. Let their science be 
filled with love, and that is religion. The 
lecture-room may be made a temple ; the 
most abstract mathematics become a liturgy ; 
the cabinet of geology, mineralogy, botany, a 
chapel filled with more sacred relics than the 
bones of dead saints, because they are signs 
of God's presence, and bear the marks of his 
creating thought and forming hand. Science 
does not need to be silent before religion, but 
only to know the God whom she already 
ignorantly worships. 



March 9. 

TO believe in an Infinite Perfection, and to 
worship it, is the first and greatest of 
human duties. It is the root and source of 
all. The sense of a Supreme Good and 
Beauty, the feeling of an Ineffable Majesty 
and Holiness, the belief in one Supreme and 
Perfect Being, — this gives unity, aim, consist- 



66 



MESSAGES OF 



ency, stability, to our life. Without it, what 
are we ? where are we ? Motes in the sun- 
beam, coming from nothing, going nowhere. 

When God asks us to put our trust in him, 
it is not for his sake he asks it, but for ours. 
It is because we need this faith for peace, 
progress, goodness. We need to have faith 
in a Supreme Being whose name and nature 
is love, who fills the heavens and earth with 
his benign presence, and is guiding all the 
events of time to one great consummation. 



HE old religions put God above the world 



1 as Maker and Ruler. He issued his 
commands from that supreme throne to the 
universe, established laws, and gave orders. 
He made the winds his angels, and lightnings 
his messengers. He said to his creatures, 
" Go and do this, go and do that " ; and they 
must not reply, nor ask the why nor the how. 

But, when the gospel comes to us, it gives 
us another view of the Almighty. He is not 
the mighty monarch now, not the Oriental 
despot sitting in secluded and awful grandeur. 
He is the heavenly Father, the ever-present 
Friend. He is the pervading life, beauty, joy, 
of the universe. He lives undivided, he op- 
erates unspent. He fills the flowers with their 
beauty in the depths of the eternal forests ; 
he is in the immeasurable smile of the far- 
rolling ocean ; he warms in the sun and re- 
freshes in the breeze; he descends into the 



March 10. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



6 7 



smallest insect to give it its happy day of life ; 
and he cared for the soul of the trilobite in 
the oldest geological epoch as certainly as he 
cares for your soul and mine to-day. He is 
the safety of the universe. Nothing can fail, 
nothing can go wrong, while he is above all, 
and beneath all and around all and within 
all. Myriads of angels and archangels, of 
powers more majestic than our thought can 
conceive, serve and obey and love him. But 
he can also descend in sympathy to the low- 
est forms of life. He cares for the cherubim 
and seraphim, and he cares for the animal- 
cuke of the tropic seas. 



THE highest act of the human intelligence 
is to know God. It seems almost in- 
credible that the finite mind should be able to 
conceive of an Infinite Being, eternal, omnipo- 
tent, omniscient, from whom and through 
whom and to whom are all things. No won- 
der that some are perplexed by the grandeur 
of the thought, and say that they are atheists. 
The wonder is that this faith in an eternal 
Supreme Being should be the most deeply 
rooted of all convictions in the heart of man. 
Living in this little moment of time, we can- 
not help believing in worlds without begin- 
ning and without end. Standing on this 
minute point of space, we are obliged to con- 
ceive of an infinite universe, without bound 
or limit. Sure to die in a few brief years, we 



March 11. 




68 



MESSAGES OF 



are conscious of immortal being. Does not 
this show that God himself speaks in our 
heart, and that we know him because he 
knows us, and reveals himself by a light 
within the soul ? 



HE reason of man, no less than his heart 



1 and flesh, cries out for the living God. 
Instincts of his thought rooted in his nature 
bind him to heaven. He sees behind all the 
movements of the universe an immovable, 
ever-present cause, over all its adaptations 
a presiding intelligence, above its great order 
a sublime unity ; and this infinite wisdom, 
power, unity he names God, Lord, Allah, 
Ormazd, Brahma, Jehovah, Zeus, Amun, ac- 
cording to his vocabulary. This has brought 
all men in all lands to believe in a Supreme 
Being. But, to know God as well as we may, 
we must take still another step. Knowledge 
culminates through experience. We can be- 
lieve in God from observation and from 
reason : we know him best as we habitually 
commune with him. 



HEN any one becomes a child of God, 



V V and is in the spirit of obedience, trust, 
and love, God reveals to him the secrets of 
his divine grace, shows him all that he him- 
self doeth. His eyes are opened, and he sees 



March 12. 




March 13. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 69 

the providence of God in all things. A cer- 
tain blessed power of inspiration comes to 
him ; he is able to make others alive as he is 
himself alive ; and all who love the Father 
love these children of the Father, who are 
full of the Father's spirit. 

March 14. 

THE worst of hells is doubting the love of 
God, and we turn away from the face 
of our Father when we do wrong. But, if hell 
is always near, heaven is equally near. 

March 15. 

IF you would know God so certainly that no 
farther doubt shall be possible, take the 
path of obedience, trust, and faith. Do his 
will, and so know of the doctrine. He who 
lives a generous life enters into communion 
with God, for God is love. He who in his 
feebleness prays for strength, in his anguish 
of soul prays for comfort, in his sinfulness 
prays for pardon, in his longing for good- 
ness and truth opens his heart to the In- 
finite Goodness, the inspiration of the heav- 
enly Comforter, — he shall come at last to 
know God so surely that no doubt can ever 
trouble him. His faith is no longer a matter 
of opinion and argument : it is insight and 
knowledge. He is as sure of the presence of 
God in his soul and in nature as he is of his 
own existence, and that of the outward world. 



JO 



MESS A GES OF 



March 16. 



WHY cannot we all be followers of God 
as dear children ? Why not live in 
this spirit, and walk in this spirit day by day ? 
Fathers and mothers, if you wish your chil- 
dren to grow up loving and obedient to you, 
become yourselves loving and obedient chil- 
dren of God. This spirit is irresistible. We 
can reply to arguments, we can harden our- 
selves against the dogmatist; but, when we 
remember the honorable, upright, generous 
life of our father and mother, we know that 
goodness is not an illusion, but something 
solid and real. Let us live such lives that 
our children may have faith in the truth. 



our souls to this present inspiration! 
Let us believe in the heavenly Father, not 
the local king, nor the finite judge. This is 
the voice which says evermore from out of 
the heavens, " Come to me ! " This voice is 
answered by the innumerable multitudes of 
living souls which people the boundless uni- 
verse, " We come to thee ! " This voice com- 
mands an unlimited trust, invites to an entire 
repose in the majestic order of which love is 
the beginning and the end. Our God, the 
God and Father of Jesus Christ, is the God 
who says evermore, " Come ! " He leaves 
none of his children orphaned. He sends 




March 17. 

) our hearts ! Let us open 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 71 

none away. His ear is open to all their cries. 
His mercy endures forever. His love was in 
the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, 
world without end. 



E know God at first unconsciously: we 



YY know him, but do not know that we 
know him. Every one has an inward percep- 
tion of something higher than himself, some 
power higher than all he knows, some cause 
back of all other causes, something mysterious 
behind all that is plain, something infinite be- 
yond all that is finite. This mystery, infinite, 
supreme, the eternal ocean surrounding the 
continent of time, the infinite firmament in 
which the finite worlds all hang suspended, 
we do not at first call God. But it is in our 
soul, behind everything else, below everything 
else, above everything else. The sense of 
awe, of wonder, of terror, before the mystery 
of existence, is perhaps our first sight of God. 

Paul told the Athenians that they were 
ignorantly worshipping the true God. He 
said he would declare to them the being 
whom they ignorantly worshipped. The roots 
of the knowledge of God lie deep in every 
soul. We have within us a secret sense of 
the everlasting distinction between right and 
wrong, good and evil. We have the idea of 
something perfect behind all imperfection, — - 
an ideal truth and beauty toward which all our 
aspirations lead us. The most unthinking 



March 18. 




72 



MESSAGES OF 



man has hours when the mystery of life comes 
near to him. In those moments he comes 
into relation with God. 



HE unconscious knowledge of God is good 



1 but it is not enough. We need not only 
to know God, but to know that we know him. 
This is life eternal, this fills the soul with 
spiritual life. 

The intellect needs to know God in order 
to be able to understand the mysteries of the 
universe, to find behind all creation its pri- 
mal cause, beneath all changing phenomena 
their unchanging essence, back of all the 
surface beauty of things their all-bountiful 
source. 

The conscience needs to know God, that it 
may perceive an infinite justice below all that 
seems false and evil, a perfect goodness 
toward which all wrong tends as its solution, 
a revelation of righteousness to come. Be- 
lieving in this, we can be patient and endure 
the present evil and wrong, sure that all 
things are working together for ultimate good. 

And the heart needs to know God as the 
All-Beautiful and All-Good, the source of what- 
ever is tender and lovable in this world. 
Otherwise our most beautiful ideals are only 
bubbles on the stream of accident. Unless 
God is in all, earthly love is unsubstantial. 



March 19. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



n 



March 20. 

AS God has seen fit to make us free beings, 
he has for that reason withdrawn his 
presence, and veiled himself behind nature 
and below consciousness. We are not obliged 
to believe in God or to see him, unless we 
will. If we were so obliged to see him, we 
should never be free to choose between right 
and wrong. His infinite majesty would mould 
us to a passive service in his hands. There- 
fore, he allows the atheist to deny his exist- 
ence, the worldly man to forget his presence, 
the sinner to be free to disobey his laws. 
But all the more do we need to watch this 
freedom, and not abuse it. He is not far 
from any one of us ; and, if we will open our 
eyes and lift up our hearts, that soft, sweet, 
penetrating light will stream in. u Blessed are 
the pure in heart, for they shall see God" 



March 21. 

WE know God because we are known of 
him. We can never, by any effort of 
ours, pass the infinite distance which sepa- 
rates the eternal One from ourselves ; but he 
can pass over that vast abyss, and come to 
his creatures. Who by searching can find 
out God? If we sometimes have a glimpse 
of that divine perfection, if we sometimes 
can look up out of time to eternity, if we 
can feel the presence of him, sole fair, sole 
true, it must be because he has come down 



74 



MESSAGES OF 



to us. When we feel that heavenly presence 
in nature, when our heart burns within us at 
the sight of summer woods, of midnight stars, 
of the wide-rolling ocean, it is God who re- 
veals himself to us in that mystery and 
beauty. God comes to us in our conscience, 
commanding us to love right and to hate 
wrong, to be faithful and true, generous and 
unselfish. In that still, small voice he is ever 
speaking. 



E know God because he first knows us. 



V V We love God because he first loves us. 
The gospel of Jesus brings him to every 
human heart as its loving Father and Friend. 
I know my own weakness and sin : I know 
them but too well. But these shall not make 
me despair, since God, who knows them bet- 
ter than I, has sent Jesus to seek me and to 
save me. The goodness we could never have 
found has come to find us. The forgiveness 
in which we could not have believed has 
shown itself to us in the infinite patience of 
Jesus Christ. More than human love the 
eternal goodness "beareth all things, be- 
lieveth all things, hopeth all things, endureth 
all things." If human love can reach that 
point where it never fails, still more surely 
can it be said of the divine love that it never 
faileth. 

Know me, O my Father, as I am ; and then 
shall I know thee aright. Let my soul lie 
open to thy light and thy truth. Lead thou 
me on ! 



March 22. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 75 



When faith was lost, when my poor bark was driving 
'Mid aimless doubts on thought's tempestuous sea, 

I yet could say, in all my hopeless striving, 
"I know thee not; but I am known of thee." 

In blacker storms of earthly sin and passion, 
One ray of light amid the darkness shone, 

That when thou, Lord, this soul of mine didst fashion, 
Its depths of weakness all to thee were known. 

And when thy peace is in my heart descending, 
When the dear Father's face again I see, 

The same great thought with every joy is blending,— 
"I know thee now; for I am known of thee." 

March 23. 

BUT is not this the wonder of wonders, the 
most inexplicable and unspeakable fact, 
— that the Infinite Being, the Being of 
beings, the great order of the universe, the 
profound substance beneath all existence, 
he who is above the reach of reason, imagi- 
nation, philosophy, should not be above the 
reach of love? We see power everywhere, 
wisdom everywhere, benevolent adaptations 
everywhere; but before the personal Being, 
the great heart of the universe, there hangs 
an impenetrable veil. To the intellect this 
mystery is unfathomable. But there was one 
human soul able to draw aside that veil, one 
who from the first spoke of God as Father. 
The inspired heart of Jesus went to a depth 
far below that of the philosophic reason. It 
came near to the heart of God. And so he 
was a revelation, never before made, of the 
Father. Therefore, he who has seen him has 
seen the Father. 



7 6 



MESSAGES OF 



March 24. 



ITHOUT God the world is a great void, 



V V a vast emptiness, an infinite disorder. 
There is nothing permanent to reverence, to 
love, to worship, to trust, — only blind forces, 
only dead laws. The stream of human his- 
tory flows by, tending nowhere. Dark Fate 
sits, a gloomy sphinx, by the wayside : the 
desert sands drift over it for centuries, and 
no answer comes to our questioning heart. 
To be without God is to be without hope in 
the world. 

But, when we come to know God, we have 
immortal life abiding in us. Then the soul is 
alive through and through. Then sunshine 
returns to our days, strength to our will, 
activity to our intellect, satisfaction to our 
heart. Then we have a Father who loves us, 
and in whom we can trust. As we seek to 
do his will, and depend on his providence, we 
know him more and more, until at last he be- 
comes as real to us as that all-surrounding 
nature which is his manifestation. Every 
earnest purpose, every trusting prayer, brings 
us nearer to him. We have the evidence 
and witness of his being within our soul. 
As the shadows of night vanish with the com- 
ing dawn, so our doubt and unbelief disap- 
pear as we live from God for man. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 77 



March 25. 

THERE is but one fatal heresy : it is that 
which limits the power, the wisdom, or 
the love of God. 



March 26. 

IF these poor hearts of ours cannot forget 
our children, does the Infinite Heart of 
the universe cease to remember them? If 
we do not love them less because of their 
weakness and incapacity, how much more 
shall the Father of their spirits look down on 
them with inexhaustible love ! Say not that 
his infinite tenderness can be exhausted by 
their sin, when ours, so much poorer, does 
not grow faint nor weary. If we must forgive 
our brother, not seven times, but seventy 
times seven, when shall an Infinite Mercy 
grow unrelenting and implacable ? Our rea- 
son and conscience are disturbed by incom- 
pleteness and discord in this little world: 
shall the Perfect Reason permit an everlast- 
ing discord, an eternal hell of sin and misery 
to continue, unconquered by his love, unre- 
deemed by his gospel, forever ? Jesus him- 
self has taught us this mode of reasoning, by 
analogy, from the poor love of earthly parents 
to the greater tenderness of the heavenly 
Father. 



MESSAGES OF 



March 27. 



HE " unspeakable gift" which gives value 



1 to God's other gifts is the love which is 
in them. It is " unspeakable " ; for who can 
describe even human love, much less Infinite 
love ? But what we cannot describe we can 
see and know. Who can describe the melody 
in the song of a nightingale or the music of 
a gentle voice ? But we know these, and can 
recall them after long years. So we may 
know, though we cannot describe, this un- 
speakable gift of Divine Love. 

Men may receive all God's other gifts ; 
and, if no love is seen in them, they will 
awaken no gratitude. A man may be grati- 
fied by the sight of outward beauty. It may 
please his ideality and imagination, but leave 
his heart cold. The sight of vast laws may 
gratify our desire for knowledge. A man 
may do right simply because it is right, and 
will find satisfaction in so doing. But the 
"unspeakable gift" may not be in any of 
these blessings. 

It is not till we see love in God's gifts that 
we are grateful ; and, when we see love, we 
cannot help being grateful. 



WHEN God has once given us to know 
himself, this greatest of all gifts he 
gives forever. After years of trivial, outward 
life, — life empty of any solid satisfaction, — 




March 28. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



79 



there comes some day of trial, of sorrow, of 
great and bitter disappointment, some day in 
which remorse seizes us for our wasted years, 
or our hardness and indifference toward our 
friends, or our life empty of any great pur- 
pose. Then, in the midst of our sense of 
utter helplessness, we are led to see that God 
loves us still, that his arms are around us, 
that he can forgive to the uttermost all our 
folly ; and in that sight we begin a new life. 
After this, no matter what comes, we have 
something we can never lose again, — a faith 
in God's love which nothing can quench, one 
anchor which holds fast in every storm. 
"Now abides faith," says Paul, telling how 
belief changes and opinions pass away. If 
we have ever once really trusted the Supreme 
Goodness, that trust will always remain in the 
depths of the soul, — a seed of hope and love. 
When God gave that, he gave it forever. I 
suppose this is what is meant by the Calvin- 
istic doctrine of "the perseverance of the 
saints." Not that the saints may not do 
wrong and go wrong, may not forget their 
best purpose sometimes, forget God's love 
sometimes, but there remains that experience 
in their hearts always, ready to bring them 
once again to their Father. 



So MESSAGES OF 

March 29. 

INFINITE Spirit ! who art round us ever, 
In whom we float, as motes in summer 
sky, 

May neither life nor death the sweet bond 
sever 

Which joins us to our unseen Friend on 
high. 

Unseen, — yet not unfelt, — if any thought 
Has raised our mind from earth, or pure 
desire, 

A generous act, or noble purpose brought, 
It is thy breath, O Lord, which fans the 
fire. 

To me the meanest of thy creatures, kneeling, 
Conscious of weakness, ignorance, sin, and 
shame, 

Give such a force of holy thought and feeling, 
That I may live to glorify thy name ; 

That I may conquer base desire and passion, 
That I may rise o'er selfish thought and 
will, 

O'ercome the world's allurement, threat, and 
fashion, 

Walk humbly, softly, leaning on thee still. 

I am unworthy. Yet for their dear sake 
I ask, whose roots planted in me are 
found; 

For precious vines are propped by rudest 
stake, 

And heavenly roses fed in darkest ground. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 8 1 

Beneath my leaves, though early fallen and 
faded, 

Young plants are warmed, — they drink my 

branches' dew: 
Let them not, Lord, by me be Upas-shaded ; 
Make me, for their sake, firm and pure and 

true. 

For their sake, too, the faithful, wise, and 
bold, 

Whose generous love has been my pride 
and stay, 

Those who have found in me some trace of 
gold — 

For their sake purify my lead and clay. 

And let not all the pains and toil be wasted 
Spent on my youth by saints now gone to 
rest ; 

Nor that deep sorrow my Redeemer tasted, 
When on his soul the guilt of man was 
pressed. 

Let all this goodness by my mind be seen, 

Let all this mercy on my heart be sealed ! 
Lord, if thou wilt, thy power can make me 
clean : 

Oh, speak the word, — thy servant shall be 
healed. 

March 30. 

IT is this faith in the unseen and eternal 
which gives substance to the things seen 
and temporal. We can spare anything else 
better than our faith in God. To live with- 



82 



MESSAGES OF 



out God in the world is to live without hope 
in the world. 

Not less, but more, of religion is what we 
need. To see God only as power may lead 
to a religion of superstition. To see him only 
as law may despoil our life of warmth and 
glow. To see the divine life only in the 
beauty of nature and art may end in a senti- 
mental religion, lacking moral force. To see 
God only in the law of duty may result in 
a hard, technical, and merely moral religion. 
To see him only in the soul may end in a 
mystical religion. To see him only in Christ 
tends to a narrow, intolerant, and formal 
religion. 

And, therefore, we need to go forward, not 
backward, into a larger sea of thought, love, 
and life. We need to find God as the fulness, 
filling all in all. Let us see him in science, in 
universal law, giving vitality to all our knowl- 
edge, and making nature more divinely fair. 
Let us see him in all the duties of our daily 
life, glorifying their humblest details with the 
warmth of devotion and the tenderness of a 
father's love. Let us see him in the depths 
of our own soul ; in the mysteries of our 
being, a light shining in the darkness, illumi- 
nating our reason with a reason more divine. 



March 31. 

DRAW near, then, in faith, to this great, 
overflowing fountain of heavenly com- 
passion. God has put into our hearts his 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 83 

spirit, to enable us all to say " Our Father ! " 
Let nothing separate us from his love, — nei- 
ther life nor death, nor our own folly and sin, 
our own weakness and ignorance, our own 
doubt or unbelief. Let us not be troubled 
by harsh doctrines. God asks for none of 
these things at our hands. Sacrifice and of- 
fering he does not require, — not the sacrifice 
of our own reason before unintelligible mys- 
teries. He says only this : " My son, give 
me thy heart ! " And, to enable us to do so, 
he shows his own love to every soul that he 
has made, — shows how he leaves the ninety- 
and-nine sheep, and goes into the wilderness 
after the one that is lost; how he so loved 
the world as to give the only one who had 
risen to the height of perfect sonship — his 
only Son — to bring the same sense of a 
Father's love to the rest of his children. He 
allowed this dearest child to die in torture 
and shame, that we, by that solemn sacrifice, 
might be lifted out of darkness into marvel- 
lous light. So now we can behold in all his 
gifts this unspeakable gift of a fatherly love. 
Now every outward blessing has in it a touch 
of divine tenderness. Now we see in the 
universe not only beauty and wonder, power, 
order, law, but, interfused with and pene- 
trating all things, — that highest of all, — a 
divine love. Hold fast to it : let it not go, 
for it is your life ! To trust in the Father's 
love is the gospel within the gopsel : it is the 
inmost secret of Christ; it is the way, the 
truth, and the life. 



Hptfl 



JESUS CHRIST. 



April i. 

WE bless him who can make us see God. 
We are often away from God ; we have 
lost sight of him ; it seems as if he had for- 
gotten us. Who shall show us the way back 
to our Father ? Whoever does this for us is 
our real priest after the power of a spiritual 
life. 

God is always near to us, always waiting to 
be gracious. But we do not know it, or do 
not believe it. Jesus, in his tenderness toward 
the sinner, so mediates a divine tenderness 
that we are able to believe in God's love, and 
can come to him. 



April 2. 

JESUS is the great High Priest of the 
human race, because he was so full of the 
sense of God's presence and love that he has 
spoken to the heart of man, and lifted it 
nearer to the Father. So he may say in truth, 
" No man cometh to the Father but by me," 



88 



MESSAGES OF 



Before Christ, men went to Jehovah, the God 
of Justice ; to Jupiter, the God of Power ; to 
Brahm, the Abstract Spirit; to Boodh, the 
representative of the human soul struggling 
against the laws of nature. They went to 
Science, and found not God the Father, but 
God as Infinite Law ; they went to Philosophy, 
and found God as Reason and Cause of all 
things. But never, never did they find their 
Father except through Jesus ; and so he be- 
came, by that revelation, the High Priest of 
the human race forever. 

April 3. 

I BELIEVE Jesus to have been Son of 
God, and divine, because filled full of the 
divine truth and love, and always abiding 
therein. He alone, of the sons of men, was 
always resting on the infinite love. He has 
sent the same spirit into the world, and en- 
abled all to say, " Our Father.'' His divinity 
did not consist in any metaphysical deity of 
person, but in living in constant communion 
with God, so as to be a perpetual manifesta- 
tion of the divine truth and love. He is the 
unclouded mirror which reflects into the world 
the glory and beauty of the Almighty. There- 
fore, we all, beholding, as in a glass, the glory 
of God, are changed into the same image 
from glory to greater glory. Christ's divinity 
consists in being the image of the unseen 
God, — of God manifest in a man. God is 
manifest in nature. He is also manifest in 
providence, in history, in the intuitions of the 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



89 



soul. But in Jesus God speaks to us through 
human lips and a human life, and so, by our 
brother man, brings us to himself. 

April 4. 

AND so every humble soul that sees the 
Father, and lives in that sweet vision, 
becomes a priest to other souls. A sacra- 
mental power goes from the voice, the touch, 
the look, of every one who is himself loving 
God. I call it a sacramental occasion when 
any soul, full of the love of God and man, 
strives to help another soul, to purify, to ele- 
vate, to bring it to God. Something beyond 
the meaning of the words passes from heart 
to heart. Something more convincing than 
argument, more weighty than reason, makes 
of that hour a sacramental hour, and of that 
office a priesthood. The life of God flows to 
us through these channels. Deeper than all 
depth, higher than all height, the Spirit 
comes through these human hearts to ours. 

April 5. 

T BELIEVE that Jesus, first of all men, 
1 clearly saw and alone among men has 
fully declared the infinite pardoning love of 
God to the sinner. He indeed teaches that 
God, when revealing himself in law, makes 
a perpetual distinction between right and 
wrong, good and evil ; that every man must 
reap as he sows ; be rewarded and punished 



9 o 



MESSAGES OF 



in this world, and in all worlds, according to 
his deeds ; be judged by his works ; and, ac- 
cording to his practical fidelity, be ruler over 
five or ten cities ; according to his practical in- 
fidelity, go into outer darkness. This eternal 
law of God Jesus does not destroy, but fulfils, 
— carries out to its ultimates. But mean- 
time he reveals the other side of divinity, 
showing the infinite tenderness and compas- 
sion of God, which makes no difference among 
his children, except this : that he cares most 
for those who need him most, so that there is 
more joy in heaven over one sinner that re- 
penteth than over ninety-and-nine just per- 
sons who need no repentance. Christ's death 
did not produce this love, or make it possible 
for God to pardon sinners ; but it revealed it. 
It showed that this love, binding the highest 
to the lowest, is the reconciling power in the 
universe, — the great atonement by which evil 
can be fully overcome by good. 



HIS is the great atonement which is 



1 taught everywhere in the doctrine of 
free grace, by which thousands and tens of 
thousands of sinners are brought to God. 
And this was, is, and will be the very centre of 
Christian revelation, — law made at one with 
love. And this great doctrine of the over- 
coming, all-conquering, omnipresent power of 
divine love to redeem the lowest and lift the 
most forlorn and save the most abandoned, — 



April 6. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



91 



this is nowhere taught as in the New Testa- 
ment, and there only is fully reconciled with 
the equal omnipresence of divine law. 



E, to-day, dear friends, enter into this 



VV region of faith. We also are risen 
with Christ. We sit in heavenly places with 
him. For heaven is not a place far off, above 
the skies, somewhere outside of the orbit of 
Saturn and Neptune ; but it is a world of spir- 
itual life all around us. Christ has abolished 
death to all who believe in him. Those who 
believe in him do not die : they go on, they 
go in, they go up. 

While the disciples at Emmaus were talk- 
ing with their Master, their eyes were opened, 
and they knew him. While we talk with 
Jesus on this Easter Sunday, our eyes are 
opened, and we know him. He is our friend, 
the friend of every soul that needs him. He 
is the friend of every poor, sinful, broken 
heart that thinks it has no friend on earth. 
He is the friend of all who wish to have his 
help. The true Christ is not in the past : he 
is here. He is not dead and gone : behold ! 
he is alive forevermore. He has not come 
merely to give us a right to be with him in 
some future heaven. He has brought heaven 
down to us here. He is with us always, even 
to the end of the world. 

Therefore, on this Easter Sunday morning, 
while its sun shines so brightly around us, let 



April 7. 




9 2 



MESSAGES OF 



us all thank God, and take courage. Let us 
not look backward, but forward; not down- 
ward, but upward; not be desponding, but 
hopeful. Are there any of us here who feel 
lonely, bereaved, desolate ? Behold ! the 
heavens are opened, and an innumerable 
company of friends are waiting for you to 
welcome you when you go up, and lead you 
to him who liveth and was dead, and is alive 
forevermore. Are there any of us who are 
hesitating to do what we know to be right, 
not ready yet to do our duty, still postponing 
till to-morrow what we ought to do to-day ? 
Let us on this bright Easter morning begin to 
do our work in full faith that God will enable 
us to accomplish it in this or in some other 
world. O weary heart, arise and be strong ! 
Sad soul, be glad to-day, for Christ has 
arisen ! Sinful soul, turn to God, and forsake 
your sins, and be made alive ! Take part in 
the better resurrection, which lifts out of evil 
into good. Make this day the beginning of 
a new life, which shall never know any end, 
but shine brighter to the perfect day. 



HE essential fact of the resurrection, 



1 therefore, according to Christ and Paul, 
is not the rising from the grave or a visible, 
bodily return to life, but the ascent of the 
spirit into the spiritual realm. The essential 
fact in the resurrection of Jesus was this: 
that he was not dead ; that he did not die ; 



April 8. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



93 



that death had no dominion over him; that 
he had gone up into a higher world, and yet 
was able to come to his friends below, to 
teach them, to influence them, and be with 
them always to the end of the age. The 
questions of how he rose, with what body he 
came, in what way he showed himself, — these 
were all secondary and unessential. It was 
enough that the disciples saw him, knew him 
to be alive, knew that he was not defeated, 
that he was coming as the Messiah to estab- 
lish his kingdom. This was the all-important 
conviction which gave new life to their souls. 

If we, then, be risen with Christ, let us 
seek those things that are above. Our sense 
of immortal life will deepen as we devote our- 
selves to all things generous, humane, true, 
and good. This is the true way to keep 
Easter: to rise' out of all that is poor, mean, 
cowardly, into courage and faith. Let us 
give ourselves, souls and bodies, to God, and 
be sure that all things will work for good to 
those who love him. 



HAT which makes the difference between 



1 Jesus and the other great teachers of 
mankind is his entire confidence in God as 
his father and friend. No one else among 
the masters of human thought has shared it 
with him. Neither Socrates nor Confucius, 
neither Buddha nor Plato, neither Zoroaster 
nor Moses, ever said: " I and my Father are 



April 9. 




94 



MESSAGES OF 



one" ; " Father, glorify thy Son, that thy Son 
may glorify thee " ; " Thou hast loved me be- 
fore the foundation of the world " ; " All things 
are delivered unto me of my Father, and no 
man knoweth the Son but the Father, nor the 
Father but the Son." It was this perfect 
union of his heart, mind, will, with the heart, 
mind, and will of God which has made of 
Jesus the leader of the human race. Deeper 
than mortal thought ever sounded, he went 
down into the depths of the infinite mind. 
Higher than human aspiration ever soared on 
wing of poet or prophet, he went up into the 
living glories of the upper world. This was 
"the length and breadth and depth and 
height " of the love of God in the soul of 
Jesus, which filled him with all the fulness of 
God. 



t\ This is the culminating and surpassing 
wonder. The experience of Jesus has become 
the experience of his humblest disciple. 
Through him we all have access by one spirit 
to the Father. A Christian, ignorant in 
worldly knowledge, without worldly science, 
has an unction of the holy spirit, and can 
know all things in the kingdom of divine 
truth. Our lives, no less than the life of the 
apostle, may be hid with Christ in God. We, 
also, are partakers of the divine nature. What 
he received, he received that he might impart 
it to his brethren. The poor woman, lonely 



April 10. 




fulness we have all received. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 95 

and unfriended, winning her bread by hard 
toil, opens her Bible after her day's work is 
over, and she rises into the society of angels 
and archangels. She is bathed in a light 
from above ; she has before her a seraphic 
vision. In her poor room she is sitting in 
heavenly places with the goodly company of 
the prophets and the noble army of martyrs, 
made one with God and Christ by an immor- 
tal hope. 

April ii. 

JESUS calls himself " the door" through 
which the human race can again come 
near to God. He makes himself a door, an 
open way to his Father and our Father, a door 
opening into the deepest depths of the divine 
love. Nature is a door opening into the uni- 
versal divine presence pervading the universe. 
That door can never again be closed. We 
can never go back to the early limitations and 
simple prayers of the childhood of the race. 
Humanity has become a man, and has put 
away childish things. But we can unite these 
two great conceptions of God as the All-in- 
All around us and as dwelling inwardly in 
every soul. 

It would seem from the New Testament 
that Jesus had no incommunicable powers or 
qualities. What he had was his to communi- 
cate, not to keep. For example : — 

Jesus had the power of working miracles. 
But this power he declares to be one which 
his disciples shall also possess : " Greater 



9 6 



MESSAGES OF 



works than these shall ye do, because I go to 
my Father/' 

Jesus was one with God. But he says of 
his disciples, " That they may be one, even as 
we are one : I in them, and thou in me." 

Jesus had power on earth to forgive sins. 
But he says to his disciples, " Whosesoever 
sins ye remit, they are remitted to them." 

Jesus was a perfect example of human 
goodness. But he says to his disciples, " Be 
ye perfect, even as your Father in heaven is 
perfect." 

Jesus knew all things. But it is said of his 
disciples, " Ye have an unction from the Holy 
Ghost, and know all things." 

Jesus was sinless. But the apostle says, 
" He who is born of God cannot commit sin." 

Jesus is to be judge of the earth. But 
Paul says that "the saints shall judge the 
world and men and angels." 

In Jesus dwelt all the fulness of the God- 
head. The apostle prays for the Ephesians 
that they " may be filled with all the fulness 
of God." 

Jesus had glory with the Father before 
the foundation of the world. But he says 
" The glory thou gavest me I have given 
them." 

God sent Jesus to be Saviour and Re- 
deemer of the world. But he says to his dis- 
ciples, " As my Father has sent me, even so 
send I you." 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



97 



April 12. 

HOW are we to have faith in Christ as the 
door ? Not by bowing down and wor- 
shipping the door, but by rising up and going 
through it. How are we to have faith in him 
as the true vine but by gathering and taking 
away the fruit he bears ? How do we show 
our faith in him as the living bread ? Surely, 
by feeding our souls with it day by day. 
And how do we most sincerely show our be- 
lief in him as the Good Shepherd, unless it be 
by joining his flock and following him ? 



April 13. 

DO not ask, When is Christ coming, and 
when is he to appear ? Christ is here 
now, if you will open your soul to him. He is 
not hidden, nor afar off. Whenever you will 
try to do your duty, trusting in God ; when- 
ever you will help and comfort any weary 
soul ; whenever you will forgive those whom 
you think have injured you, and do good to 
those who treat you with seeming scorn ; 
when you will put out of your heart envy 
and low ambition, poor vanity, self-conceit, 
and give yourself to what is generous, true, 
and noble, — you will discover that Christ has 
already come. His hour cometh always, and 
is now. 



9 8 



MESSAGES OF 



April 14. 

THIS is the way to know Christ, — to stand 
still and look at him, not to argue about 
him. Look at his holiness, so grand, yet so 
simple and unpretending, which came up in 
Judea, and lasted a few years, and then filled 
the centuries with its light and beauty. Look 
at his religion, so human, yet so divine ; a 
religion for this world, and the other world, 
too ; a religion which loves God by loving 
man ; a religion not of dogma, ceremony, 
anxious fears, but of trust, obedience, and 
generous love. Calm, deep, brave, a leader 
of men ; also tender, childlike, pure. Stand 
still, and look at Jesus himself. Come to his 
feast of love, and think about him. Sit at his 
feet, and thank God that he has lived, lifting 
us above the terror of death and sin, and 
showing us heaven here and heaven hereafter. 



April 15. 

COME then to Jesus and find rest, all ye 
that are weary and heavy-laden ! Do 
not wait until you can decide which, among 
all the ways, is the very best way. Come by 
whatever way is the plainest for you. Take 
the hand of this dear Master, and be led by 
him. He says to us all, u Follow me ! " We 
can always do that, or, at least, try to do it. 
We may not be able to follow close by him, in 
the company of his chosen saints ; but we can 
see him afar off, and still follow him, if only a 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



99 



great way behind. Nor will he forget us 
then. He who blessed the poor widow who 
put her two mites into the treasury will, per- 
haps, accept our two mites of poor but honest 
belief ; our feeble effort to do good to some 
of his little ones ; our short prayer made in 
the closet of our heart; our patient submis- 
sion to the will, though it may seem hard, of 
the heavenly Father. So wide as this is 
Christ's invitation. He wishes those who 
need him to come to him, and those who 
come to him he will in no wise cast out. 



April 16. 

LET me call your attention to what seems 
to have especially impressed the early 
disciples, which they expressed by the word 
"fulness." John, in our text, says of Christ, 
" Of his fulness have we all received." 
Paul speaks of our "all coming to the stat- 
ure of a perfect man, unto the measure 
of the fulness of Christ " ; and in another 
place he says of Jesus " that it pleased the 
Father that in him should all fulness dwell." 
By this fulness they intend the rounded and 
entire union in Christ's teaching of that which 
had been before made separate. What men 
had put asunder he joined together. He 
united piety and morality, — love to God and 
love to man. Jesus, who spent whole nights 
in prayer, spent long days in doing good. 
You cannot say whether God or man were 
nearer to that large heart. In Jesus, mind 



100 



MESSAGES OF 



and hand were equally in harmony. The 
profoundest thought went out at once to some 
practical application. He declared himself to 
be the Messiah, the Way, the Truth, and the 
Life ; and yet he washed the feet of his dis- 
ciples, talked on equal terms with publicans, 
Samaritans, and Romans, and had for his 
companions and friends humble fishermen 
and untaught country people. 



April 17. 

IT has been denied that any one man can 
be all this, because to be this implies 
perfection of nature ; and all men are imper- 
fect. But those who deny that any man can 
be perfect seem to be yet hampered by the 
fatal doctrine of hereditary depravity. Why 
should not one man be perfect ? Is sin so 
natural to man that perfection is unnatural ? 
Were we made to be sinners, made to be al- 
ways wrong? Many men have approached 
a spotless perfection. Why should not one 
man have attained it ? We are, all of us, per- 
fectly good at some moments in our lives, 
when we submit wholly to truth and love. 
Why should not one man have been always 
in this state of entire submission and entire 
love ? Jesus had no such doubt. He did 
not believe that man was necessarily imper- 
fect. He said to the average men about him, 
neither better nor worse than we are, " Be 
perfect, even as vour Father in heaven is per- 
fect." 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. ioi 

April 18. 



divine, because he shows us God. In 
proportion as we see that divine quality in 
his soul and life, we really believe in his di- 
vinity. We may call him God ever so loudly, 
but we do not really believe him divine until 
we understand that his generous love to his 
fellow-men is a divine quality; that his devo- 
tion to truth, justice, freedom, holiness, is di- 
vine ; that, as God loves, he loved to have 
us do God's will rather than to say, " Lord ! 



are spirit and life." Therein is their im- 
mortal power. What a difference between 
living words and dead words, — words which 
are empty repetitions of an old belief and 
words filled with a present sight of truth, in- 
spired by a new revelation from heaven, glow- 
ing with knowledge fresh from the oracles of 
God ! It is this immediate insight which gives 
authority to speech. When one whose soul is 
thus aflame with lofty convictions gives utter- 
ance to his thought, then truth itself seems to 
speak through his lips, and conviction follows 
his every word. And such words have an 
immortal youth. So live the words of Homer 
through the intervening centuries. So the 
song which came from the pale lips of Dante 
vibrates in human hearts to-day. And be- 




character is 



Lord ! " 




April 19. 

The words I speak to you 



102 



MESSAGES OF 



cause the words of Jesus were inspired by- 
still loftier realities, and are the outcome of 
a more profound insight, he could say, 
" Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my 
words shall not pass away." What a daring 
prophecy, but how sure to be fulfilled ! Ob- 
livion may sweep over all other literature ; 
but mankind, if it has forgotten all else, will 
still cling to the words of Jesus. When he 
uttered that wonderful prediction, his sayings 
were unrecorded. He gave no command to 
have them put into writing. They probably 
remained unwritten during the lifetime of that 
generation. Many doubtless may have been 
lost, and can never be recovered. But those 
which remain are full of the spirit of Jesus, 
and it is this heavenly spirit that is of the 
chief value to us all. Paul said he did not 
care to know Christ Jesus after the flesh, 
since he had the spirit of Christ formed within 
him, the hope of glory. The Church has 
been torn with controversy, futile and idle, 
in regard to the origin of Christ, his essential 
being, his relation to the substance of God. 
These questions belong to the letter which 
killeth. But he who knows the mind of 
Christ, he who has the spirit of Christ, be- 
longs to him ; and to him Christ belongs. 

We walk by faith, dear Lord, and not by sight ; 

We cannot follow where thy footsteps led, 
Nor hear that voice of tenderness and might, 

The voice that calmed the storm and raised the 
dead. 

Yet had we known thee, doubting and weak-hearted, 
With thickest veil of worldly thought between, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



We might have stood aloof or soon departed, 
And not believed that which our eyes had seen. 

But, if we have not seen, and yet believe, 
A better blessing thy dear love imparts, 

More than thine outward presence to receive, 
To find thy spirit formed within our hearts. 



April 20. 

I KNOW those whom I love, and I know no 
one else. Those who love me, and no 
others, know me. Sharp, cold, criticising 
intellect knows nothing as it ought to know it. 

And so we know Christ by loving him. 
When we take him as our Master, Friend, 
Saviour ; when we seek to obey his divine 
law, and help him in his present work in the 
world, — we come to know him. He who sym- 
pathizes with Christ in caring for the poor, 
the ignorant, the suffering, the sinful, comes 
to know Christ. In looking for his poor, we 
find him; in visiting his prisoners, we visit 
him; in speaking words of truth and love 
to the sinful and weak, we find ourselves 
in secret intimacy and sympathy with our 
Master. We do not know Christ by only 
reading about his life and miracles, but by 
having him formed in our hearts, by letting 
Christ's spirit act in and through us, and so 
leading others to him. 



104 



MESSAGES OF 



April 21. 

CAN A. 

DEAR Friend ! whose presence in the 
house, 

Whose gracious word benign, 
Could once, at Cana's wedding-feast, 
Change water into wine, 

Come visit us ; and when dull work 

Grows weary, line on line, 
Revive our souls, and make us see 

Life's water glow as wine, 

Gay mirth shall deepen into joy, 
Earth's hopes shall grow divine, 

When Jesus visits us, to turn 
Life's water into wine. 

The social talk, the evening fire, 
The homely household shrine, 

Shall glow with angel visits when 
The Lord pours out the wine. 

For when self-seeking turns to love, 
Which knows not mine and thine, 

The miracle again is wrought, 
And water changed to wine. 



April 22. 

JESUS was not the result of a past de- 
velopment, but the beginning of a new 
era of thought. You cannot explain his 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 105 



teaching from the influences around him. 
He was not merely in advance of the ten- 
dency of his period : he created a new and 
different order of faith. He was so far re- 
moved from the popular opinion of his day 
that even his disciples did not understand 
him. To the last they reported what he 
taught about the kingdom of heaven without 
comprehending it. Not only were they in- 
capable of inventing this original and ma- 
jestic character, but they failed to see its 
meaning when before their eyes. This shows 
that the teaching of Jesus came from himself 
alone, and that no one else could have 
created his gospel. He was a new word of 
God, coming down from heaven ; a new in- 
spiration of the divine truth ; a new incarna- 
tion of divine love. 



v_y of Jesus is to seek first what is plain 
and unquestionable. Find what it is which 
he emphasizes, on which he lays the main 
stress, the teachings which are central and 
pivotal. In every great teacher some truths 
are radical : they are the roots from which 
the rest grow. In reading Plato, you would 
not begin with the obscure dialogues, but 
with those in which he teaches his essential 
doctrines. There are Platonic ideas in 
Plato around which his doctrine revolves : 
they are the keys which open the doors of 
his mind. There are similar fundamental 



April 23. 




reading the words 



io6 



MESSAGES OF 



ideas in Aristotle, Descartes, Bacon ; and, 
these being found, the obscurer parts may 
be neglected. So in the teaching of Jesus 
there are great central truths which fill the 
soul with light. There are leading thoughts 
which unlock the gospel, and are the keys of 
the kingdom of heaven. Seek these first, 
and all else of importance in the thought of 
Jesus will come afterward. When we have 
these, we have the mind of Christ. These 
may be called the gospel in the Gospels. 



\Jf vading truths is that of the fatherly love 
of God to all his human children. To Jesus 
God never came as Power, as Law, as Intelli- 
gence, chiefly; but all these attributes were 
subordinated to the infinite fatherly tender- 
ness. The fatherhood of God was to him not 
a doctrine, but a vital experience from the be- 
ginning. In the Sermon on the Mount he 
tells his disciples, fifteen different times, of 
" their Father in heaven," whom they may 
glorify by letting their light shine ; whose 
children they become when they love their 
enemies ; their Father who sends blessings 
on the evil and the good; the Father whose 
perfection they are to imitate ; their Father 
who sees in secret and rewards openly ; their 
Father who knows what they need before 
they ask him ; their Father who feeds the 
little birds of the air ; their Father in whose 



April 24. 




central, and all-per- 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 107 

providence they may always trust. So Jesus 
taught at the beginning of his ministry, in 
Galilee. At Jerusalem the Jews rebuked 
him for this language, thinking it irreverent 
familiarity, and accusing him of comparing 
himself with God when he called God his 
Father. But this was a proof of their narrow- 
ness ; for Jesus laid no exclusive claim to be 
the Son of God, but taught that all men, even 
the evil and unthankful, were children of the 
same heavenly Father. In his agony he 
said, " Father, if it be possible, let this cup 
pass from me"; on the cross he said, 
" Father, into thy hands I commend my 
spirit " ; and, when he left the earth, he told 
his disciples, " I ascend to my Father and 
your Father, to my God and your God." 
Thus from the inmost life of Jesus this sense 
of an ever-present divine love passed steadily 
into his teaching and influence. This, there- 
fore, must be one of the most certain ele- 
ments in the " mind of Christ." 



April 25. 

ANOTHER central idea in the mind of 
Christ was his profound faith in his 
mission to the sinful, the miserable, the dis- 
couraged, and the down-trodden. He be- 
lieved his chief work was to these. " I have 
come to seek and save those that are lost." 
The Christian Church to-day has not risen to 
this faith. They believe that Jesus came to 
seek the lost, but do not believe that he came 



io8 



MESSAGES OF 



to save them, When the Church speaks of 
"the lost," it means those permanently lost, 
— those whom Christ is unable to save. He 
compared the heavenly Father to the good 
shepherd who sought the one lost sheep " till 
he found it." He said it was not the will of 
the Father that one of his little ones should 
perish. 



E have four central ideas, undoubtedly, 



Y V present to the mind of Jesus, — his 
faith in the fatherly love of God, his trust in 
the all-conquering power of truth, the breadth 
of his human sympathy, and his mission to the 
sinful and abandoned. To these we must add 
yet another, — his faith in the spirit of relig- 
ion, and his indifference to the letter. The 
Jewish religion in his day had run into an 
extreme formalism. Besides the written law 
of Moses there were unwritten traditions 
taught by the constitutional lawyers who ex- 
plained all the details of ceremonial worship. 
Obedience to the law had run into minute ob- 
servances. In opposition to this ceremonial 
religion Jesus placed the essence of goodness 
in the soul ; in justice, mercy, and faith ; in 
love to God and man ; in purity of heart and 
life. He healed on the Sabbath, walked with 
his disciples on the Sabbath, defended his 
disciples for eating grains of wheat on the 
Sabbath, set aside the ceremonial ablutions, 
ate with publicans and those who were out- 
side of the Jewish communion. Thus, in the 



April 26. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 109 

mind of Christ, the essence of all righteous- 
ness was not in ceremonies or ritual, but in 
the heart and soul. 

April 27. 

IF it be objected to our faith in Jesus that 
the criticisms of the present time have 
made his history uncertain, and shaken our 
confidence in the authenticity of the Gospels, 
I reply that the truth of the gospel history of 
Jesus does not rest on critical reasons, nor 
can it be shaken by critical objections. It 
rests on the harmony and consent of the ac- 
counts of this great person. From these 
evermore emerges that sublime figure, bear- 
ing the lineaments of reality. The human 
mind has the power of seeing what is true 
to nature. You might just as well look at 
the sun and doubt its reality as read the 
story of Jesus and question its historic truth. 
All critical objections dissolve in air before 
the personality which looks out upon us from 
these simple records through all the interven- 
ing centuries. It is the face of one whom we 
have learned to know better than the brother 
who sat with us by our father's fireside. Not- 
withstanding the narrowness of his nation, 
the ignorance of his biographers, the hard- 
ness of the age, the low views of God and 
man prevailing around him, we hear a voice 
which speaks with the authority of perfect in- 
sight, — a voice which creates a new era, 
which pours light on time and eternity. It is 
a voice so strong yet so tender that it sinks 



no 



MESSAGES OF 



into our soul, needing no other proof of its 
reality than itself. Some things prove them- 
selves to be true, and need no other evidence. 
So it is with the character of Jesus. 



April 28. 

JESUS tells us, as Moses before had said, 
that we live by every word which pro- 
ceeds out of the mouth of God. Thus he re- 
bukes all narrowness and bigotry which would 
make him the only word of God. He wishes 
us to hear God's voice in nature, in history, 
in friendship, in love, in life and death. We 
live a true life, we grow and become strong to 
do and bear, as we find something of God in 
all these, — something divine. Yet most of 
all is Jesus himself the Word of God. That 
wonderful life, so simple and natural, yet so 
deep and high ; Son of God in its lofty com- 
munion with Deity, Son of Man in its tender 
sympathy with humanity; that life so brave 
that it went straight to every work as it came, 
met all sorts of men without doubt or hesita- 
tion, yet so modest that it went by the low- 
liest ways and the simplest paths. 

That life continues to be the bread of 
heaven and the food of the world. By it we 
live in faith and hope. We believe in God as 
near and helpful, though we do not see him. 
By that life we know God as our Father 
and man as our brother. By the life of Jesus 
this world seems rich and good and the next 
world better. As we feed on that life, we find 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. in 



it to be the best word of God, and we are 
nourished by it and made strong. Man eats 
angels' food. This is the bread which came 
down from heaven. 

April 29. 

AND might we not expect, from the nature 
of God, that he would give us such a 
revelation of his truth and love as we find in 
Jesus Christ ? " What man is there among 
you, being a father, who, when his son asks 
for bread, will he give him a stone?" For 
thousands of years men's hearts have been 
feeling after God, asking him for this living 
bread. They have been looking for God in 
the magnificence of the rising sun ; in the 
solemnity of the starry night ; in the in- 
scrutable beauty of air, fire, water ; in the 
solitudes of the forests and the mysterious 
and inaccessible mountains. Will not the 
Father come to these children who are seek- 
ing for him in all these ways? He -comes, 
by the voices of sages, prophets, wise and 
good teachers, in all lands and times. But 
at last a Teacher arrives, who speaks as never 
man spake, and before whose voice all other 
voices are hushed and still. He takes human- 
ity by the hand, and leads it to an infinite 
Father, to a holy law of eternal right, to a 
hope full of immortality. And shall we not 
say that he came, not by the will of the flesh 
or the will of man, but by the will of the lov- 
ing Father of us all ? This has given a unity 
to all modern civilization, has made life 



n2 faith, hope. a::d zors. 



everywhere new. has created a new heaven 
and a new earth. Jesus is today the leader 
of the human race. Is it reasonable or not 
to believe that God mem: hi::; so to be ? 



April 30. 




THOU by God ordained to lead the 



King. Prophet. Saviour. — show thy human 
face, 

And let us know thee as ourselves are 
known. 

Come. Prophet ! teach the world. Thy solid 
truth 

Alone this doubt can cure, can light this 
gloom, 

Make real that unseen world's undying youth 
Which turns to dreams the terrors of the 
tomb. 

Come, - King, and reign o'er those who yearn 

Life's task full matched with their strong 
souls' desire ; 
Who long for work de serving human love, 
Not to live idly, not unwept expire. 

Come, Saviour ! in our sin and need and 
pain, 

Treading the path where thy clear feet have 
gone, 

Help us through thy full life to live again. 
And be through thy deep peace with God 
at one. 



MAN. 



May i. 

GOD has placed us here to grow, just as 
he placed the trees and flowers. The 
trees and the flowers grow unconsciously, 
and by no effort of their own. Man, too, 
grows unconsciously, and is educated by cir- 
cumstances. But he can also control those 
circumstances, and direct the course of his 
life. He can educate himself. He can, by 
effort and thought, acquire knowledge, become 
accomplished, refine and purify his nature, 
develop his powers, strengthen his character. 
And, because he can do this, he ought to 
do it. 

May 2. 

YET we must add that this is not all. 
There is something more. " Grow up" 
" Grow up in all things " ; but also "grow up 
in all things into him who is our Head, even 
Christ." This is what Goethe, with all his 
wisdom, failed to see. This is what makes 



n6 



MESSAGES OF 



the apostolic maxim wiser than his. To 
grow up is an end, but not the final end. 
Grow up, in order to grow up into Christ. 
That is, since Christ is another name for gen- 
erous love, cultivate and unfold all powers in 
order to do good, for the sake of helping, sav- 
ing, inspiring, guiding, animating, encouraging 
other souls. Develop all your powers ; but 
for universal usefulness. 



HE wonderful works, knowledge, charac- 



1 ter of Jesus are not unnatural, but nat- 
ural : they are not exceptional, but prophetic. 
What he was all men may become. He is 
the type of humanity, the example of its fully 
unfolded condition. Jesus came to help 
others to become what he was. So far from 
regarding him as exceptional, the Gospels and 
Epistles teach that everything Jesus was we 
are to be. Those who commune with him by 
faith shall gradually be changed into the same 
image, and grow up into the stature of Jesus 



IF God finishes everything in nature, if he 
makes the rhodora beautiful in the wood 
where no human eye can see it, and paints in 
exquisite tints the shell at the bottom of the 
ocean, we may trust that he will not rest till 
he has made all our souls and all our lives 



May 3. 




Christ. 



May 4. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 117 



pure, generous, noble, beautiful. We are as 
yet only the roots of a future beautiful plant. 
The best man or woman is only a shoot a 
little way out of the ground. We are God's 
plants, God's flowers. Be sure that he will 
help us to unfold into something serenely fair, 
nobly perfect, if not in this life, then in an- 
other. If he teaches us not to be satisfied till 
we have finished our work, he will not be sat- 
isfied till he has finished his. 

If we can believe this of God, then we can 
love him as we love our father, as we love 
our friend, in whose answering love we have 
perfect confidence. Such a confidence in 
God as this is alone the source of genuine 
piety. Not till we cease thinking of him as 
justice, as power, not till we are able to trust 
in him as one who means to save us perfectly, 
and unfold us into all the strength and beauty 
for which he has designed us, can we love him 
with all our heart, or love our brother man like 
ourselves. 

May 5. 

JESUS came to show that religion was made 
for man, not man for religion ; that the 
Sabbath was made for man, not man for the 
Sabbath ; that the Bible was made for man, 
not man for the Bible ; that the church was 
made for man, not man for the church. He 
taught that man is greater than the temple, 
greater than all forms and ceremonies, and 
that the development and education of the 
human soul is the object of true religion. 



n8 



MESSAGES OF 



May 6. 

ALL souls belong to God and to goodness 
by creation. God has evidently created 
every soul for goodness. He has carefully 
endowed it with indestructible faculties look- 
ing that way. Every soul has an indestruc- 
tible idea of right and wrong, producing the 
feeling of obligation on the one hand, of pen- 
itence or remorse on the other. Every soul 
has the tendency to worship, to look up to 
some spiritual power higher than itself. 
Every soul is endowed with the gift of free- 
dom, made capable of choosing between life 
and death, good and evil. Every soul is en- 
dowed with reason, with a capacity for knowl- 
edge : and especially is every soul endowed 
with the faculty of improvement, of progress. 



May 7. 

ONE chamber of the mind is fitted for 
thought, another for affection, another 
for earnest work, another for imagination, and 
the whole to be the temple of God. It stands 
now vacant, its rooms unswept, unfurnished, 
wakened by no happy echoes ; but shall it be 
so always? Will God allow this soul, which 
belongs to him. so carefully provided with in- 
finite faculties, to go wholly to waste ? The 
man who buried his Lord's talent was re- 
buked. Will God destroy his own work ? 
Having made the soul for himself, will he let 
it continue undeveloped by not putting it to 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 1x9 



use and educating it in the course of his 
providence ? 

No: God, having made the soul for good- 
ness, is also educating it for goodness. The 
soul which belongs to God by creation will 
also belong to him by education. 



HE earth is God's school, where men are 



1 sent to be educated for the world be- 
yond. All souls are sent to this school : all 
enjoy its opportunities. The principal teach- 
ers in this school are three, — nature, events, 
and labor. Nature receives the new-born 
child, shows him her picture-book, and 
teaches him his alphabet with simple sights 
and sounds. She has a wonderful apparatus, 
and teaches everything and illustrates every- 
thing by experiments. She lets him handle 
wood, water, stones, shows him animals and 
birds, insects and fishes, and thus familiarizes 
his mind with a fixed order, with permanent 
law, with cause and effect, substance and 
form, space and time. Happy are the chil- 
dren who can go to Mother Nature and learn 
in her dame school ! The little prince was 
wise who threw aside his fine playthings, and 
wished to go out and play in the beautiful 
mud. 



May 8. 




120 



MESSAGES OF 



May 9. 



HE next teacher in God's school is labor. 



1 Work gives health of body and health 
of mind, and is the great means of developing 
character. Nature is the teacher of the intel- 
lect, but labor forms the character. Nature 
makes us acquainted with facts and laws ; but 
labor teaches tenacity of purpose, persever- 
ance in action, decision, resolution, and self- 
respect. The man who has done a day's 
work well respects himself, has contentment 
in his 'heart, and knows himself, however 
humble his sphere, to be in that sphere essen- 
tial. It is bad that men should be over- 
burdened or broken by toil, bad that children 
whom God has sent to his school of nature 
should be sent too early into the school of 
work ; but the necessity of daily labor is a gift 
to the race the value of which we can scarcely 
estimate. 



HEN comes the third teacher, — those 



1 events of life which come to all ; joy 
and sorrow, success and disappointment, 
happy love, bereavement, poverty, sickness 
and recovery, youth, manhood, and old age. 
Through this series of events all are taken by 
the great teacher, — Life. These diversify 
the most monotonous career with a wonderful 
interest. They are sent to deepen the nature, 
to educate the sensibilities. Thus nature 
teaches the intellect, labor strengthens the 




May 10. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 121 



will, and the experiences of life teach the 
heart. 

For all souls God has provided this costly 
education. What shall we infer from it ? If 
we see a man providing an elaborate educa- 
tion for his child, hardening his body by exer- 
cise and exposure, strengthening his mind by 
severe study, what do we infer from this ? 
We naturally infer that he intends him for a 
grand career. If he knew that his son had a 
mortal disease which would take him away 
before maturity, would he subject him to this 
severe discipline ? Then, when God disci- 
plines us by severe toil and sharp sorrow, we 
may believe that he is forming us for a great 
career by and by. 



A demption. The work of Christ is for 
all : he died for all, the just and the unjust, 
that he might bring them to God. He came 
to reconcile all things unto God. Christ did 
not die for the great and the distinguished 
only, nor for the good and pure only, but 
for the most humble, neglected, and forlorn. 
The light streaming from his cross reveals in 
every soul a priceless treasure, dear to God, 
which he will not willingly lose. The value 
of a single soul in the eyes of God has been 
illustrated by the coming of Jesus as in no 
other way. The recognition of this value is 
a feature peculiar to Christianity. To be the 
means of converting a single soul, to put a 



May ii. 




all souls belong to God by re- 



122 



MESSAGES OF 



single soul in the right way. has been con- 
sidered a sufficient reward for the labors of 
the most devoted genius and the ripest cult- 
ure. To rescue those who have sunk the 
lowest in sin and shame has been the especial 
work of the Christian philanthropist. To 
preach the loftiest truths of the gospel to the 
most debased and savage tribes in the far 
Pacific has been the chosen work of the 
Christian missionary. In this they have 
caught the spirit of the gospel. God said, 
" I will send my Sen." He chose the loftiest 
being for the lowliest work, and thus taught 
us how he values the redemption of that soul 
which is the heritage of all. 



May 12. 

AFTER long centuries of evil and igno- 
rance, God sent into the world a man 
who seemed to have escaped all taint of sin, 
and to have a power which took hold of men's 
souls with a strange authority. In him were 
joined light and love, so that he, by this 
union, inspired life. Dead souls came to life 
at his word, dead hearts began once more to 
beat, dead hands to do good work. Those 
who were in their graves, and contented to 
be in their graves, heard his voice, and came 
forth. He called himself Son of Man; that 
is, simply, the Man. The world for the first 
time had a man in it. — full-grown, full- 
balanced in head and heart. Sometimes, 
also, he called himself Son of God ; for to 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 123 



him God was not a judge or a king, but a 
father. His soul passed into the life of his 
disciples, and through them into the life of 
the age. It leavened the whole lump of 
human nature. In a few centuries the grand 
Roman Empire laid aside its own ancient 
religion, deposed its pontiffs, abolished its 
flamens, silenced its augurs, and received 
this crucified Jew as its Master. This man 
had left nothing in writing, but his fugitive 
sayings became the oracles of mankind. 
He had formed no system of belief, but all 
the venerable philosophies became the ser- 
vants in his school. He came from the ob- 
scurest corner of an obscure state, to be the 
light of the world. He taught a year, and 
died, and is the life of mankind. 



May 13. 

ONE of the leading features in the mind of 
Christ was the breadth of his human 
sympathy. He was educated in the midst 
of Jewish prejudices. He was in a society 
to which the Romans were odious. But he 
was friendly to the Roman centurion, healing 
his servant, and saying, " I have not found so 
great faith, no, not in Israel/' The Jews had 
no dealings with the Samaritans, and Jesus 
made a Samaritan the hero of one of his most 
charming stories. To him there was neither 
Greek nor Jew, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond 
nor free, but only human beings. He went 
outside the limitations of his time, the con- 



124 



MESSAGES OF 



ventions of his people, the traditions around 
him, the public opinion in which he was born, 
and took his stand on the brotherhood of 
man. In this he was so much in advance of 
his age that, until Paul came, none of his own 
disciples wholly grasped this broad element 
or were emancipated from Jewish provincial- 
ism. But this was an essential part of the 
mind of Christ. 

May 14. 

JESUS comes nearer than any other to that 
which is deepest and best in us. How 
true the saying, " He knew what was in man, 
and needed not that any one should testify of 
him ! " His words are spirit and life. At 
the end of the Sermon on the Mount we read 
that the people were astonished at his teach- 
ing ; "for he taught them as one having au- 
thority, and not as the scribes." Jesus states 
the divine law, and it carries conviction with 
it. He tells the story of the Pharisee and 
publican, and Ave see the difference between 
the prayer of formality, self-conceit, self- 
righteousness, and that of a contrite and 
broken heart. He tells the story of the Good 
Samaritan, and we see before our eyes the 
nature of generosity — simple, direct, thor- 
ough-going. This picture of goodness hangs 
on the walls of time ever fresh and fair. He 
tells the story of the Prodigal Son, and God, 
who was afar off, comes nigh to us as a for- 
giving father. The gospel spoken by Jesus 
brings heaven near to earth, takes the burden 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 125 



from tired humanity, gives new courage to 
anxious hearts and timid consciences. And 
Jesus, belonging to another race, another 
age, and a far-off land, is better known to us 
than any other teacher because he under- 
stands better than any other our human 
needs. We know him, because we are known 
by him. 

May 15. 

"117HEN he came to himself." This 
VV passage assumes that the true self 
in man is not bad, but good. Man goes 
away from himself whenever he does wrong. 
Hidden in the words we use are whole vol- 
umes of history and philosophy. When our 
words and phrases do not come from theo- 
ries, but from the long observation of the 
race, they often contain the results of that 
experience in compact form. Thus " to come 
to one's self" means to recover mental and 
moral sanity. 

Let us understand, then, that our true self, 
our real self, is our best self. In our best 
hours we are most truly ourselves. We are 
then what God made and meant us to be. 
We are at one with ourselves. All our facul- 
ties work harmoniously according to the true 
method. The soul commands : the body 
obeys. The conscience obeys the law of 
right : the appetites and desires are obedient 
to that conscience. There is no such thing, 
therefore, as natural depravity. All depravity 
is unnatural. 



126 



MESSAGES OF 



May 16. 

IF we say we have no sin, we deceive our- 
selves. If we say we are totally de- 
praved, we also deceive ourselves. God has 
put into us a great deal that is good. He 
has given us reason, conscience, heart, free- 
dom to choose good, power to resist evil. 
When he has done all this for us, to say that 
he has made us totally depraved, is not hu- 
mility, but ingratitude and impiety. 



May 17. 

THE sense of right and wrong, the delicacy 
of conscience, the feeling of moral obli- 
gation which is in us, we did not make our- 
selves. God gives it to us : he gives it anew 
all the time. It is his Holy Spirit dwelling 
in us, warning, advising, restraining, impelling 
us. It is in every human soul. This holy 
monitor, this sacred, solemn voice, is from 
grace, from love. It is the Father's arm held 
round every child, to keep him safe from evil. 



May 18. 

THAT man's true self is his best self ap- 
pears also from the fact that the worst 
men still esteem goodness. The most worldly 
person looks with reverence on those who 
devote themselves to helping mankind, to the 
heroes of philanthropy, to the great teachers 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



127 



of truth. Let a man deny himself, and take 
up his cross, let him give his life to noble ob- 
jects, and universal esteem accompanies him : 
he is honored and beloved by his fellow-men ; 
and, when he dies, the great heart of humanity 
is melted in sorrow at his loss. Men recog- 
nize in him their own best nature, they see 
in him their own highest life, and thus testify 
that man is himself only as he is noble and 
good. 

To be a religious man is not to be less 
manly, but more so. It is not to cut off any 
faculty, to deny any power, but to unfold all 
in the light of God's truth and God's love. 



May 19. 

MAN has faculties by which he perceives 
God, duty, and immortality. But these 
faculties must be exercised, or they lose their 
power. The more we exercise the spiritual 
faculty, the more certain do spiritual things 
become. He who habitually obeys con- 
science sees more and more clearly the eter- 
nal distinction between right and wrong. To 
him who constantly looks forward with trust 
to a future life, immortality becomes more 
and more certain. The pure in heart who 
habitually look up to a heavenly ideal of good- 
ness see God more and more. He who trusts 
in Providence comes to stand so firmly on 
that rock that no doubt can disturb, no disap- 
pointment shake his confidence that all things 
are working together for ultimate good. If a 



128 



MESSAGES OF 



man does not use his spiritual powers, he 
gradually loses them. 

May 20. 

DENY conscience, deny generosity, deny 
purity of heart, and you quench the eye 
in man's soul by which he sees God. 



May 21. 

BUT when we believe in good men and 
women, in holy men and women, in true 
men and women, then we are beginning to 
believe in God. For these are mediators of 
what is most divine in Deity; that is, of good- 
ness. Nature mediates power, providence, 
wisdom, universal beauty ; but good men 
mediate that fatherly love, that righteousness, 
that beauty of holiness, which is to us the 
essential thing in our conception of Deity. 
There is only one soul-destroying infidelity : 
it is to doubt the reality of goodness. 



May 22. 

SO we may find our true priests everywhere, 
and we may ourselves be true priests of 
God. If we have in us the spirit of Christ, 
if we see God as our Father and as the 
Father of all men ; if, in this spirit, we learn 
to respect and honor all God's children ; if we 
carry in our hearts, wherever we go, an unfail- 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 129 



ing trust that God is all around us in nature, 
that God is always going before us by his 
providence, and that he is always ready to 
come into our hearts by the holy influence of 
his spirit, — we shall find a priesthood in all 
nature, in all events, in all life, and we shall 
carry that holy and sanctifying influence to 
others. 

May 23. 

IF parents may be priests to their children, 
so also may children be priests to their 
parents, opening to them the gateway of 
heaven. These tender, innocent, dependent, 
trusting hearts draw out all that is best in 
ours, and make us more simple, true, and 
pure. Little children in a family are God's 
priesthood there, after the order of Melchize- 
dek, to sweeten life with something from on 
high. " Trailing clouds of glory do they 
come, from God, who is their home." And 
when they vanish from our sight, when their 
forms are laid below the green grass, we sit 
by their graves under the clear October sky, 
and hear the dry leaves dropping on the 
sod, and our hearts are lifted above their 
common hardness and coldness, and we feel 
that there is something in us better than the 
love of money or fame or power ; that we, 
too, belong to their heaven, and shall see our 
angels again in the presence of God and the 
great high priest of love, Jesus Christ. 



T30 



MESSAGES OF 



May 24. 

MANKIND is aroused from its torpor, is 
made desirous of progress, as it recog- 
nizes its immortal nature and destiny. When 
Jesus said to his disciples, " Go into all 
the world, and preach the gospel to every 
creature " ; when he went among publicans 
and sinners, and made it a proof of his di- 
vine mission that "the poor had the gospel 
preached to them " ; when Peter declared 
" God hath showed me that I should not call 
any man common or unclean/' — then was rec- 
ognized the worth of man as man, which has 
grown up into the faith that all men are equal 
before God, and have a right to every oppor- 
tunity for progress and improvement. Take 
away this faith in the inherent worth of man ; 
substitute for it the notion which is growing 
popular among some scientists, that to try to 
raise the weak, the down-trodden, and the 
outcasts is a mistake, that you ought to make 
the strong stronger, and let the inferior class 
die out — and you lose one of the mightiest 
motives for universal progress. 



May 25. 

THE doctrine of Christianity is not that we 
are to call all men our brothers, but to 
treat them all as such. No good is done by 
saying that a man is our brother, if he has no 
brotherly feeling to us nor we to him. But 
Jesus taught that outside of every boundary, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 13 1 

outside of every race, party, creed, there was 
this possibility of brotherhood. It is our 
business to believe in that root, and to de- 
velop that fruit. It does not fulfil our duty 
to say, " Brother ! brother ! " any more than 
to say, " Lord ! Lord ! " There may be just 
as much cant in one as in the other. 



May 26. 

" A LL souls are mine." Blessed declara- 
t\ tion of the God-inspired Ezekiel ! All 
souls, — of the great and the humble, the rich 
and the poor, the wise and the ignorant, the 
king and the slave, the pure child and the 
abandoned woman, the soul of the apostle 
John and the soul of Judas Iscariot, — all be- 
long to God. He will take care of what is 
his : he will leave no child orphaned. Those 
who are trodden down and forsaken in this 
world, — he watches their sorrowful lives, and 
will cause them to bring forth fruit at last. 
Thus does God love all souls with a universal, 
unwearied, unfailing affection. Thus did 
Christ love all souls, gathering around him 
the publicans, Pharisees, and sinners, the 
pious and the profane. And thus, if we are 
Christians, we shall love all souls, calling no 
man common or unclean, believing in the 
brotherhood of the race, finding something 
good in every one, — a vital seed of nobleness 
in the most deadened bosom ; and, in thus 
loving other souls, our own souls will be 
blessed. While we forget ourselves, God will 



132 



MESSAGES OF 



remember us. While we seek to save others, 
we, too, shall be safe. 



E may throw ourselves awav ; but God 



VV will not throw us away. We belong 
to him still ; and he "gathereth up the frag- 
ments which remain, that nothing be lost." 
In order to become pure, we may need sharp 
suffering ; and then God will not hesitate to 
inflict it. In the other life, as in this, he will 
chasten us, not for his pleasure, but for our 
profit, that we may be partakers of his holi- 
ness. It is thus that God's love for the soul, 
and its worth, appear eminently, in that he 
will not let us destroy ourselves. When we 
pass into the other world, those who are 
ready, and have on the wedding-garment, will 
go in to the supper. They will find them- 
selves in a state of being where the faculties 
of the body are exalted and spiritualized, and 
the powers of the soul are heightened ; where 
a higher truth, a nobler beauty, a larger love, 
feed the immortal faculties with a divine 
nourishment ; where our imperfect knowledge 
will be swallowed up in larger insight ; and 
communion with great souls, in an atmos- 
phere of love, shall quicken us for endless 
progress. Then faith, hope, and love will 
abide, — faith leading to sight, hope urging to 
progress, and love enabling us to work with 
Christ for the redemption of the race. 



May 27. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 133 

May 28. 

LET us rejoice, friends, in these great 
hopes. Let us praise God for his creat- 
ing, educating, and saving love. Let us re- 
joice that the lost souls — lost to earth, lost 
to virtue, lost to human uses here — are not 
lost to God ; that he still holds them in his 
hand. Let us rejoice that those who will not 
be led to him by blessings and joy shall be 
led to him by anguish, pain, and suffering. 
Let us rejoice that the glory of heaven and 
the fires of hell shall both serve God, — both 
work together for good. 



May 29. 

JESUS came to gather up the fragments of 
human virtue, love, and goodness, that 
nothing should be lost. There are always 
some fragments of good in every heart. 
God's great law of economy applies to these. 
If he does not allow a comet to wander hope- 
lessly away into emptiness, but sends the 
great archangel, gravitation, to bring it back, 
he will not let a soul, made in his own image, 
go off on any fatal erratic curve into outer 
darkness. The great archangel Love shall 
pursue the lost souls, and find them. That is 
what Christianity teaches. The Son of Man 
comes to seek and save the lost. If he had 
pity on the fragments of bread, will he not 
pity the fragments of broken minds and 
broken hearts ? He does. He does not 



134 



MESSAGES OF 



choose to drink the cup of joy alone in the 
kingdom of God. He cannot be happy there 
unless you and I are there with him. He 
cannot be happy there unless we bring with 
us our lost brethren and sisters who are per- 
ishing around us for lack of a little love. 
Has God sent Christ to seek and save the 
lost ? And shall he not find them and save 
them ? 

May 30. 

OF all the holy things which God has 
made, the most holy is man himself. 
He is the temple of God, for the spirit of 
God dwells in him ; and, wherever a human 
being stands, there stands something greater 
than the temple at Jerusalem. God has made 
man in his own image, with power of insight, 
capacity for love, energy of action. The mys- 
terious depths and heights of his nature we do 
not yet half understand. His experience in 
this world has meanings and objects of which 
as yet we have hardly an idea. His destiny 
in the other world, the height of being which 
he shall climb, eternity alone can reveal. 



May 31. 

DO not forget that far more sacred than 
any consecrated bread is that true bread 
which came down from heaven ; that sacred, 
divine gift in the soul which God has placed 
in man ; that power of aspiration, capacity for 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 135 

progress, sense of right, knowledge of infinite 
truth, fitness for boundless love, thought, and 
action. Do not let even the crumbs of this 
fall to the ground, if you can save them ; for, 
of all holy things on earth, nothing is so holy 
in the sight of God as the soul of man. 



June, 



FAITH. 



June i. 

AND now the gospel says to us that all this 
is only the preparation for a deeper and 
fuller life of love which God means to give to 
us on the condition of faith. That is, trust 
him. Do not doubt his nearness, his influ- 
ence, his good will. Believe that what he has 
begun he means to carry on and finish. Trust 
in your Father, and each day accept as from 
him the gift of life, the inflowing light of con- 
science and of reason, the inflowing love 
which draws out your heart to those around 
you, the inflowing aspiration which longs for 
some better and higher goodness. It is al- 
ways ready to come into your soul. Only 
open your heart to receive this new life each 
day in faith. 

June 2. 

GOD educates man in different ways. Out- 
wardly, by external circumstances, — nat- 
ure, events, work, study, joy, and sorrow. He 



140 



MESSAGES OF 



also educates him by inward influence, — by 
new sights of truth, new experiences of heav- 
enly and earthly love, by airs from heaven, 
divine impulses which touch the soul and vi- 
talize it anew. 

All the great religions of the world teach 
that there is a spiritual influence coming from 
God into the soul to awaken and inspire. The 
Christian doctrine of a Holy Spirit differs 
from these in teaching of a Holy Spirit which 
is not for a few prophets, but for all men ; not 
coming occasionally, but dwelling with us al- 
ways ; not a miracle, but natural, and meant 
as a practical influence to produce inward and 
outward goodness, 

Jesus, when going away, wished his disci- 
ples not to look backward, thinking of him, 
but to go on and work in his spirit for others. 
So he promised them the Holy Spirit in his 
place. He describes the Holy Spirit as : — 

1. The consolation, the comforter. 

2. A permanent influence : " He shall abide 
with you forever.'" 

3. A teacher, "The Spirit of Truth"; uni- 
versal, meant for all. 

4. It was to be himself. He was virtually 
to return : "I will not leave you comfortless. 
I will come to you." 

5. It was to be an evidence of Christianity : 
" He shall testify of me." 

6. It was to produce inward conviction : 
"He shall convict [or convince] the world." 

7. It was to glorify Christ and Christianity : 
" He shall glorify me." 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 141 

Jesus brings to us the true comforter, which 
is the Holy Spirit. He teaches us to look up, 
not down ; to find our consolation in work for 
others, thought for others, love for others. 
He teaches us that God, duty, immortality, 
heaven, are realities. The Holy Spirit is the 
influence which descends from God himself 
into the soul, to help us to see the reality of 
divine truths. This is the substance of the 
Holy Spirit. All else is accidental and sec- 
ondary. The tongues of flame on the day of 
Pentecost, the wind, the miracles, — these are 
all the outward part, the temporary form 
which soon passed away. 

The Holy Spirit gives us this comfort by 
giving us a great faith in goodness as some- 
thing real, a great expectation for ourselves 
and others, and love born of this faith and 
hope. These three are the gifts of God, fed 
by his spirit in our heart. They are given to 
us as rain and sunshine are given to the 
flowers and the grass. But we differ from the 
grass and flowers in this, that they have no 
power of resisting the influence from above, 
while we have. We can " resist the Spirit" 
or " grieve the Spirit" ; or we can live in the 
Spirit and walk in the Spirit, and be full of it 
all the time. 

June 3. 

WE live between two worlds, the world of 
things seen and temporal and the world 
of things unseen and eternal, the world of 
which we take hold through the senses and 



142 



MESSAGES OF 



that which we apprehend by faith. We walk 
by sight, and we walk by faith. Every one, 
every day, lives by both these faculties. 

Faith is a deep fountain in the soul, below 
reason, below knowledge, far below sensible 
experience ; and without the exercise of faith 
we could not live. We believe in the reality 
of an outward world; we believe the sun, 
moon, and stars are not appearances, but 
realities, that trees and flowers, rocks, and 
earth, men and women, are actual existences. 
An instinctive, universal, and necessary faith 
is given to every human being. 

From faith to faith ! From this faith in the 
reality of an outward world we grow up into 
other forms of faith, deeper, larger, more in- 
tense. How large a part of our life comes from 
within, not from without ! 



HE next step which we take by faith is 



1 our confidence that these realities about 
us are upheld by unchanging law. We be- 
lieve that the laws of nature are permanent. 
What reason have we for thinking that, when 
we wake in the morning, we shall find things 
around us as we left them the night before ; 
that we shall meet our family as usual around 
the breakfast-table ; our place of business 
where it was ; the work of life going on just 
as it did yesterday ; human nature always the 
same ? What reason have we for trusting 
that our food will nourish, and not poison us ; 
that our clothing will keep us warm ? " Be- 



June 4. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE, 143 



cause it has always been so," you say. Yes : 
that is one reason. Experience turns faith 
into knowledge. But how small is our experi- 
ence ! How little that " always " is, com- 
pared with the immensities of duration ! Be- 
hind and below this short experience of the 
stability of things lies an instinctive faith that 
God is the same, yesterday, to-day, and for- 
ever ; that his laws work steadily and surely, 
without haste or rest ; that there is no ca- 
price, no accident, no irregularity in the uni- 
verse. This second step of faith is the 
foundation on which all science rests, — that 
all forces are governed by unchanging and 
eternal law; that there cannot be any viola- 
tion of natural law. The miracles of Jesus 
need not be regarded as violations of law, but 
rather as manifestations of other laws deeper 
and higher than those with which we are now 
familiar. All progress in science and the 
arts consists in new revelations or applica- 
tions of law. There was nothing preternatu- 
ral or unnatural in the wonderful works of 
Jesus. One day, perhaps, when the race has 
advanced far enough, and we have " perfect 
men in Christ Jesus," his prediction may be 
fulfilled, — " Greater works than these shall ye 
do, because I go to my Father." 



June 5. 

WE walk by faith in our affections. We 
have confidence in father and mother, 
brothers and sisters and friends. We are 



144 



MESSAGES OF 



rooted in this surrounding love. It is the 
home of the heart. What a blessing that 
children grow up in this atmosphere of belief ; 
that they take for granted that their parents 
and friends are wise and good ; lean on these 
affections, and are safe ; look back to them 
in after life, and have their souls still fed out 
of the sacred soil of such memories ! 

From faith to faith ! Next comes our 
faith in human nature. There is an instinct 
of confidence in man, without which there 
could be no society, no union, no common 
work. Men are often deceived ; but they still 
take for granted that, in the main, men will do 
right, tell the truth, and stand by their en- 
gagements. The whole business world rests 
on this confidence. One of the worst evils 
of defalcations, embezzlements, false pre- 
tences, is that these tend to weaken the con- 
fidence of man in man. They give color to 
the false philosophy which assumes that men 
are selfish, that every one has his price, that 
the world is given over to the evil one. On 
the other hand, every act of self-sacrificing 
honesty, of loyalty to principle, each uncom- 
promising adherence to justice and truth, 
strengthens man's confidence in man. And, 
unless we believe in goodness, unless we have 
confidence that men, though weak and liable 
to fall, do not love evil, how can any one try 
to make the world better? What a faith 
Jesus must have had in the moral capability 
of man when he said, " Be perfect, even as 
your Father in heaven is perfect" ! 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



!45 



June 6. 

IF you wish to do good to your brother, you 
must have confidence in him. This is 
the first and most essential step toward help- 
ing him. Take for granted that men are 
mean and false, and you make them so. 
Take for granted that they wish to do right, 
and you lead them up the right way. They 
take courage from your confidence, and begin 
to believe in themselves. 

From faith to faith ! Confidence in man 
leads us to trust in God. He who has not 
faith in his brother whom he has seen, how 
can he have faith in God whom he has not 
seen ? We say that God is good, and so we 
trust him. But what do we mean by good- 
ness except the goodness we have seen here ? 
Infinite goodness is, to our conception, human 
justice, human generosity, human pity, carried 
upward to their perfection. If we have no 
faith in man, how can we have faith in God? 
Every noble act of devotion to truth, every 
pure life unstained with evil, every word of 
pity, every instance of forgiving goodness, 
helps us to a better faith in that divine and 
eternal goodness which has no variableness 
or shadow of turning. 



June 7. 

FROM faith to faith ! From faith in man 
we rise to faith in God. This is trust, 
absolute trust, that the universe is based on 



146 



MESSAGES OF 



goodness and love ; that all things work to- 
gether for good ; that good is stronger than 
evil, and must overcome it ; that God loves 
all his children ; and that sin and woe, the 
misery and wickedness of this world, are to 
end in peace and joy. This was the great 
faith of Jesus. It was a faith for all man- 
kind on whom the sun shone and the rain 
fell. Before the mind of Jesus there stood 
no everlasting hell as a black contrast and 
counterpoise to an infinite heaven. He be- 
lieved that he could draw all men unto him, 
and so to God. He would have the good 
news of a divine salvation preached to every 
creature. All who labored and were heavy 
laden could find rest in this great faith and 
hope. He has put the spirit into our hearts 
by which we say Father ; and, when we trust 
in God as a father, we have the germ of all 
religious faith. 

Yet we all need sometimes to say, "Lord, 
I believe : help thou mine unbelief." We 
believe a little, but we need to believe more. 
How shall we increase our faith ? 

Every act of faith in God increases our 
faith in him. To him who hath shall be 
given. He who waits on the Lord will re- 
new his strength. We do not increase our 
faith by argument, but by exercise. As life 
advances, our faith ought to deepen and 
strengthen. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 147 



June 8. 

AND so, too, of our faith in immortality. 
Men say, " We may see some reasons 
for believing in it, but we cannot know it." 
Suppose some one should say to your little 
boy : " Your father is very kind to you while 
you are with him, but he does not care 
whether you live or die. If you should fall 
into the sea from a boat, he would not put out 
his hand to save your life." The boy would 
answer : " I know better. I know that he 
would." The child would know it: it would 
be no mere probability. And shall we say of 
God: Yes! He is our Father while we are 
here. He is an ever-present friend, in whom 
we live and move and breathe. He has 
formed us with these wonderful powers by 
which we can know him and love him. He 
has educated us by the long experience of 
life, by the glory of nature, by the far-reach- 
ing lessons of history, by the teaching of the 
wise and good, by the love of all the dear 
and true ; and then he will let us drop into 
nothing after these few years of earthly ex- 
perience. He will let us fall back into the 
abyss of annihilation, while we are yet ad- 
vancing in thought, aspiration, hope, our 
real life hardly begun, our reason but half de- 
veloped, our best powers in their infantile 
stage of development ! And will you tell me 
that I do not know the contrary, but only 
conjecture it ? If I really know God as my 
Father, I know that he will not let me go, he 
will keep his child safe. 



148 



MESSAGES OF 



" I know not what the future hath 
Of marvel or surprise, 
Assured alone that life and death 
His mercy underlies. 

" And so, beside the silent sea, 
I wait the muffled oar ; 
No harm from him can come to me 
On ocean or on shore." 



June 9. 

FROM faith to faith! In the same way 
our faith in prayer grows till it becomes 
like that of Jesus, unwavering and sure. We 
often think, before experience has taught us 
better, that prayer is only contemplation, 
meditation ; that the only answer to prayer is 
the reaction of our own thoughts, — that it 
is not communion, but self-communion. We 
say that God will not change his laws in an- 
swer to prayer ; and, having said that, we 
think the question settled. Yes : he does not 
change his laws ; but may it not be one of his 
laws that those who ask him sincerely and 
earnestly for inward peace, light, strength, 
pardon, comfort, shall receive it ? Far down 
in the mysterious depths of the soul, below 
any distinct consciousness, is the region 
where we are in communion with God.- We 
hear no sound, — there is no tempest, no 
earthquake, no fire, — but a voice so low and 
sweet and still that we only know the peace 
that comes, the strength that is given, the 
comfort of the Holy Spirit shed abroad in our 
hearts; and we say, "I was weak: I am 
strong. " 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 149 



June 10. 

MANY persons find it hard to believe in 
any special providence. They say : 
" God governs the world by laws, and he 
never interferes with their workings. When 
we obey the natural laws, we are rewarded : 
when we disobey them, we are punished. 
How can I believe that God will alter the 
working of his laws to meet the needs, the 
dangers, the exigencies, of any individual ? " 
No: we need not believe this; and yet we 
may have faith in a Father who watches over 
his children. Often what seem to be the 
greatest of calamities turn out to be blessings. 
It seemed a dreadful thing for the Pilgrim 
Fathers to be driven by oppression from their 
pleasant homes in old England to come to 
these wild shores, with a mysterious wilder- 
ness on one side, full of alarms, and a stormy 
sea on the other. But now we see the great 
opportunity which was given them to lay deep 
the foundations of a nation. Thus faith 
grows, just as knowledge grows. We climb 
from faith to faith by a manifold experience, 
and from the childish faith to that manly 
faith which is still childlike. We pass beyond 
the sandy deserts of doubt, the morass of 
scepticism ; we rise to higher altitudes, and 
to a broader expanse of vision. We breathe 
the air of the upper skies ; we are surrounded 
by a broad expanse of heaven. We are en- 
circled and embraced by a divine love. Thus 
we go from faith to faith ! 



I S° 



MESSAGES OF 



June ii. 



HERE are those who doubt the goodness 



1 or the providence of God because life 
seems so full of hardship and evil ; because 
there is so much suffering in the world ; be- 
cause evil seems so often to triumph over 
good ; because noble and beautiful souls, the 
joy and blessing of the world, are taken pre- 
maturely away, and those who do not seem 
to be needed live on. " How can we believe 
in providence,' 7 they say, "when such evils 
' exist in the world ? " I have no solution for 
these difficulties. But, for my own part, I 
am sure that God reigns. In the instincts of 
my soul, in the aspirations of my best hours, 
in the testimony of the noblest of the race, 
I find a revelation of the divine love. I trust 
to that, and I wait. 



HE great work of Jesus in the world is to 



1 create such a faith as this. It is to 
bring us to God, to give us rest, to help us 
to say, "My Father!" This has been the 
true work of Christianity, its essential power. 
The power of Christianity has been some- 
thing behind and below all its creeds, 
churches, ritual, ceremonies. In the Roman 
Catholic and Protestant it is the same faith, — 
faith in a loving, fatherly, ever-present Friend. 
It is the same in the Presbyterian kirk and 
the Quaker meeting. It goes far below ques- 
tions of criticism, history, doctrine. What 




June 12. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 151 

matter questions of trinity or atonement com- 
pared with this deepest of all questions, — the 
relation of the human heart to its infinite 
Friend ? I wish it were in my power to make 
you feel, as I feel it, how utterly insignificant 
are all the points which men discuss so loudly 
compared with this. 

June 13. 

IN every age and every land it has been 
the universal and profound conviction of 
Christians that Jesus has been made to them 
the open way to God ; that through him, 
somehow, they find forgiveness ; through him, 
hope ; through him, a new life in their heart 
and soul. 

This is the key to the ardent language of 
Paul. This is why he forever repeats the 
name of Christ. This is why he says, We are 
rooted and grounded in love. To Paul there 
came from Jesus this divine revelation of a 
great Fatherhood, and it broke the bonds of 
his Pharisaic literalism, of his routine re- 
ligion ; took him out of his ritual, ceremonies, 
texts of Scripture, into a new life of perfect 
trust and hope and joy. " To me to live is 
Christ, and to die is gain." "The life I now 
live I live by faith in the Son of God." "I 
live, but not I : Christ lives in me." Christ 
to him was the manifestation of a divine ten- 
derness of which he had never before dreamed. 
So that, no matter what happened to him, he 
was sitting in heavenly places with Jesus ; 
persecuted, but not forsaken ; cast down, but 
not destroyed. 



I 5 2 



MESSAGES OF 



And this unspeakable gift was not given to 
Jesus alone or to Paul alone, but it is given 
to you and to me. To us the word of this 
salvation is also sent. Salvation ! for what 
can be more safe than to feel ourselves in 
the embrace of an infinite love. Salvation ! 
for we know that our sins will be destroyed 
and our evil cleansed by coming into this 
heavenly atmosphere of love. Salvation ! for 
how can we continue to sin if we are kept in 
the presence of our Father? 



HE only faith which saves us is that 



1 which enables us to save others. And 
this faith is to believe that God is always 
ready to give us the power to do anything 
which ought to be done. If there is a woe, a 
wrong, a sin to be removed, then God has 
given us the power with which to do it. If 
we can believe this, we shall never be afraid. 
This is a very simple test of genuine faith 
in Christ. If you have faith enough in Jesus 
as the Christ of God to enable you to under- 
take his work of saving your fellow-men from 
sin and misery here and hereafter, you may 
be sure you have the true faith. But, if you 
have not the courage to do this work, then, 
though you preach faith in Christ as the om- 
nipotent God, and utter that doctrine with the 
tongue of men and angels, yet you prove by 
your own cowardice in the presence of evil 
that you have no real faith in him as an act- 
ual Saviour of actual men and women. 



June 14. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 153 



June 15. 

DO you know of any case of vice or sor- 
row which it seems almost impossible 
to relieve or cure ? Go and see if God will 
not work a miracle through your mind and 
heart, giving your actions and words a power 
not their own, so that you can make the blind 
see, the lame walk, and raise up the dead. 
You must go in faith, however, trusting en- 
tirely that, if the thing ought to be done, God 
will give you strength to do it. You must go 
also in the spirit of prayer, — not, necessarily, 
with the prayer of words, but with that essen- 
tial prayer which consists in keeping one's 
self in a condition of faith and hope, leaning 
on God. 

June 16. 

SALVATION, to be of any use to us, must 
be a present salvation. It is not enough 
that I passed through some experience, and 
repented and was converted and born again 
last year. I must repent to-day, I must be 
converted to-day, I must be born again 
to-day. Nor can I hope to be saved in the 
future except as I am saved now. Immortal- 
ity must begin here. God is here, Christ is 
here, his Holy Spirit is here, all good angels 
are here, all truth is here ; and I can be saved 
now by trusting in God as my Father and my 
Friend ! 



!54 



MESSAGES OF 



June 17. 

FAITH is the spring of all hope, all action, 
all joy in life, — faith in things unseen ; 
faith in an infinite wisdom and love, before 
all things, above all things ; faith in a God of 
infinite intelligence, who never makes a mis- 
take ; of infinite power, whose plans can 
never miscarry; of infinite love, which does 
not mean that any should perish, but that all 
shall be saved. This faith is to the world of 
the soul what the sun is to the world of 
nature. 

The Roman Catholic goes to church, and, 
as he looks at the altar, believing that the 
Deity is really present there, he is brought 
near to God. The altar is a way to God ; and 
so he thinks it the only way, and says, " Out 
of the Church there is no salvation." 

Another man, tormented by his sins, is 
told that Christ has made an atonement, and 
now he can come at once to God. He finds 
peace and pardon and joy in believing. 
Then he says, " There is no way to God but 
by believing in the atonement." 

But every way which brings us to God is 
the right way ; and no way is right for us, un- 
less it brings us to God. 



June 18. 

FAITH is not a blind belief in doctrines. 
It is not belief in doctrines at all. To 
believe the Apostles' Creed, to accept the 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 155 

Thirty-nine Articles of the Church of England, 
to give an intellectual assent to the doctrines 
of Rome, of Calvin, of Channing, is not faith 
at all. A doctrine cannot be the object of 
faith : for faith stands upon a higher plane. 
We believe a creed, but we have faith in a 
friend. We assent to a proposition, but we 
trust our father and mother. Faith always 
has goodness, wisdom, and strength for its 
object. 

It is faith which saves the soul. Belief 
never did, never can, save the soul. No spec- 
ulative belief, whether orthodox or rational, 
necessarily makes a man better. Theological 
creeds influence conduct, but only indirectly ; 
but faith influences us at once and always. 



June 19. 

FAITH casts out fear, just as love does. 
When we are afraid of God, we have no 
faith in him. When we have faith in him, we 
are not afraid of him. 

A great evil of sin is that it casts out 
faith. It makes us doubt others and our- 
selves. We are afraid to trust others be- 
cause we have been deceived. We are afraid 
to trust our own good impulses for fear they 
should not endure. We are afraid to trust 
God because we think we are not fit to go to 
him, not fit to pray to him. So sin kills out 
the faith of the human heart, and takes away 
its life, courage, and hope. 



MESSAGES OF 



June 20. 

ALL human action, all good endeavor, all 
the progress of civilization, is the work 
of faith. In the eleventh chapter of the 
Epistle to the Hebrews the writer says that 
"by faith " Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and the 
great heroes of Israel accomplished their 
noble deeds. So it has been ever since. By 
faith the apostle Paul crossed the ^Egean 
Sea, and went from Asia to Europe to con- 
vert a new world to Christ. By faith the 
missionaries of the gospel went among the 
savage Goths and Vandals with the same di- 
vine purpose, and saved Roman civilization 
from ruin. By faith, in later days, the Jesuits 
went among the North American Indians, 
and Livingstone among the African barba- 
rians, not counting their lives dear, so that 
they might finish their course with joy. By 
faith Coster invented the printing-press. By 
faith Watt discovered the steam-engine, 
Stephenson the locomotive, Daguerre the sun 
portraits. By faith Howard reformed the 
prisons, Wesley gave spiritual life to the 
lowest classes in England, Clarkson and Wil- 
berforce abolished the slave-trade, Garrison 
and Abraham Lincoln put an end to slavery 
in the United States. By faith Dr. Howe 
penetrated into the darkness of Laura Bridg- 
man's mind, and carried knowledge there. 
By faith Channing, Bushnell, and Theodore 
Parker shook the pillars of irrational belief. 
By faith Robertson and Stanley gave a larger 
life to the Church of England. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 157 

June 21. 

HE truth is that faith is the very life of 



I the intellect, the essential condition of 
all knowledge. All that we know rests on 
the solid foundation of trust. Trust in cer- 
tain immutable convictions, confidence in the 
fidelity of our own faculties, reliance on the 
veracity of our fellow-creatures, a profound 
faith in the stable order of the universe and 
the reign of universal law, — all this is faith, 
not knowledge ; but without it knowledge 
were impossible. We must begin by trust- 
ing our own faculties. We trust our senses. 
When we open our eyes and see the sun, the 
earth, the ocean, the faces of men and women, 
we believe that they are realities. This is an 
act of faith. When we hear the melodies of 
winds and woods and waters, the tones of 
affection, the words which bring to us comfort 
and peace, we rely on the reality of all this. 
Our senses may deceive us, yet we trust in 
them. We trust in our higher faculties. We 
believe the reports which consciousness gives 
to us of our own identity and personality, of 
the reality of right and wrong, good and evil, 
time and space, beauty, order, immortal truth. 
Thus faith is the foundation on which our 
knowledge rests, — faith in things unseen, be- 
hind and below whatever is seen. 




MESSAGES OF 



June 22. 

THUS we see that faith abides, — faith in 
truths as yet unseen, in laws not yet 
known to us, in great realities outside of 
our present vision. All human knowledge, 
human endeavor, earthly progress, depend 
on faith that beyond what we know there 
is a great world of truth and good still to be 
discovered. 

And this is, in reality, faith in God. For 
God is the eternal Truth, the omniscient 
Good. He is behind ail things, before all 
things, and above all things. We do not see 
him, but faith leads directly and inevitably to 
him. 

Thus faith is like the primitive granite of 
our New England. Dig down deep, and you 
come to it, below all superimposed strata. 
Go to the summit of the highest mountains 
and you find it, on the loftiest elevations. 
Faith begins as the basis of the infant's 
knowledge : it ends in leading us to know 
God, Christ, and immortality. 



June 23. 

IF a sacrament is an outward act or event 
by which an inward grace is communi- 
cated to the soul, there are innumerable 
sacraments ; for God, by a vast multitude of 
outward, visible influences, is ever manifest- 
ing his truth and his love to our hearts and 
lives. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 159 

Thank God for the many sacramental hours 
of life, the hours when he comes near to us 
in the outward events of our life, when they 
not only signify, but also convey to us some- 
thing from above. Such an hour came to 
Jacob, when having left his home and the 
worship of his household, and sleeping on a 
lonely mountain summit, not knowing that 
God was still with him there, he dreamed the 
wonderful dream of a great staircase reaching 
from earth to heaven, and said, when he 
awoke : " Lo ! God is here, though I knew it 
not. This is none other than the house of 
God and the gate of heaven ! " That hour 
was a sacramental hour, and that rude moun- 
tain summit became a means of access to 
God. 



HERE are hours in life in which nature 



1 is transfigured, when we seem to see 
the soul in nature. In moments of depres- 
sion the heart is cold and dead, and the out- 
ward world seems cold and dead also. But 
the soul which is filled with faith and hope 
and love fills all outward objects with the 
same joy. So Saint Francis went out to pray 
in company with the birds. So Socrates, 
sitting under the plane-tree near the Ilissus, 
says, "I seem, O Phaedrus, to be borne away 
by a divine impression coming from this 
lovely place ; for the place where we sit seems 
also divine." 

Nature grows alive with the life of the soul. 



June 24. 




i6o 



MESSAGES OF 



George Fox, the Quaker, says that, when he 
was first converted to faith in the Divine 
Love, and went out into the fields, the whole 
world around him glowed with new life. The 
skies were full of a Divine Presence. The 
air breathed a Divine Love. The birds in 
their songs seemed to say, " Let us praise 
God." The same spirit in the Hebrew 
Psalms calls on the hills to clap their hands, 
and the waters above and below to be thank- 
ful. So is nature transfigured by the soul, 
and grows full of life. We see God in nature, 
and our heart drinks peace from sky and 
land. An ineffable beauty seems spread over 
the scene \ and we wist not what to say, for 
language cannot utter it. There are days 
which are like a concert or oratorio, when 
earth, air, trees, sunshine, blue sky, grass, are 
all in the same happy mood, all in tune to- 
gether, no discord to jar the full harmony. 
In such days the earth becomes a Bible, — 
the rocky strata its Book of Genesis, the sing- 
ing of the birds its Book of Psalms, the air 
full of sunlight and fragrance its Gospels, and 
the changing lights, the advancing hours, its 
Book of Revelation, showing to us how God 
is all in all. 

June 25, 

SORROW also is transfigured by the soul. 
What pang so sharp, what anguish so 
terrible, that has not been borne by martyrs 
with content and a face radiant with smiles ? 
Faith in God pours beauty and joy into all 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 161 

earthly sorrows, and thus transfigures them, 
and makes them a part of the kingdom of 
heaven. 

There are other hours in which work is 
transfigured, — in which it does not appear 
drudgery, but a mission ; in which it is noble 
to do anything for God and man ; in which 
every duty is attractive. All work then be- 
comes a divine calling ; and we see that men 
are not only called to be apostles, but also 
called to be carpenters, called to be mer- 
chants, soldiers, sailors, called to be artists, 
inventors, and that one can sweep a room for 
the sake of God, and be happy and Christian 
in doing it. And until our work is thus trans- 
figured, and we see religion in it, it must be 
often a burden and drudgery. 



HE sight of great truths and devotion 



1 to great causes transfigure, also, our 
friendship and our love. Friendship is only 
a habit of being together ; love is only a fire 
of straw, flaring and falling away in a moment, 
unless its soul is some generous aim, some 
noble inspiration. But with these, when 
we talk with our friends, they are trans- 
figured ; and we are talking with Moses and 
Elias, with prophets and saints. Their gar- 
ments are white as the light ; their faces 
shine as the sun. For, as Jesus is the mirror 
in which we see the face of God, so are all 
good men and women, in their better mo- 



June 26. 




162 



MESSAGES OF 



ments, the illustration to our hearts of the 
great prophets and saints of the earth. They 
are our prophets and saints, our heroes and 
martyrs. What would life be without them? 
They encourage our faith in all things good 
and fair, and open to us beforehand the 
portals of a higher world. 



June 27. 

AND so, sometimes, Christ becomes trans- 
figured to us, as he once was to Peter 
and John. Sometimes we see him and under- 
stand him far better than at other times. 
Our hearts burn within us as he talks with us. 
He opens to us the Scriptures. Technical- 
ities fall away. We do not ask any theolog- 
ical questions about Jesus, whether he was 
Son of God or of man, natural or supernatural. 
But we seem to see our Master and Friend as 
Stephen saw him, a dear human face, a look 
of compassionate tenderness to us, a pity for 
our temptations and sins, a divine heart, full 
of God, yet a human heart, all manhood, too. 
And the Scriptures grow clear in such 
moments, grow intensely interesting. Whereas 
they were before dull, now every word is 
filled with fresh life. The Bible becomes 
transfigured : it is like earth in this spring- 
time, every part swelling into leaves and blos- 
soms, every part instinct with life. W T e study 
the words of the Bible, always expecting to 
find something new in them. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 163 

June 28. 

SO, also, is death transfigured to us, as we 
live in the light of God's truth and love. 
The old death is abolished. There is no 
such thing as death, only change, only prog- 
ress, since Christ came. The other world 
grows fair and near, grows sweet and tender. 
It repels no more : it attracts us. We enjoy 
this life, are glad to stay and work : we are 
ready for the other, being sure that also will 
bring us enough to know, enough to love, 
enough to do. 

Such are the hours of transfiguration which 
God sends us from time to time to ennoble 
our lives. We sometimes call them the com- 
ing of his Holy Spirit. These moments of in- 
ward illumination are the master-lights of all 
our being. They go with us always, hid in our 
heart. They are undying convictions, from 
which we can never escape, teaching us that 
truth, right, goodness, are realities, and shall 
never pass away. 



HESE hours of transfigured life are so 



1 precious that we wish to detain them. 
But this is not the law of our existence. 
When Peter said, " It is good to be here/' he 
said the truth ; but, when he added, " Let us 
build three tents, and stay here," he wist not 
what he said. Monasticism tried to build 
such tents, in these high places of life, and 
to live on the mount of transfiguration, but 



June 29. 




164 



" . ::: of 



failed. Sentimental and emotional piety try 
to live in the upper air of high- wrought enthu- 
siasm, in the solitude of devotion, always 
alone with the only God. But that fails also. 
It is not meant that we should always live on 
this mountain, in this high, lonely solitude of 
worship. We must come down, as Jesus did, 
to mingle with the world, and do our work in 
the world. 

Let us thank God for these hours on the 
mount of transfiguration. They make our 
common life better and nobler. We go on 
our common way illuminated by these heav- 
enly visions. They preserve us from doubt 
and despair. They are the seed of a better 
future for us all, — the small kernels, the little 
acorns, into which God has put the vast har- 
vests and noble forests of the coming years. 



June 30. 

PROTECTING SHADOWS. 

I SIT beneath the elm's protecting shadow, 
Whose graceful form 
Shelters from sunshine warm ; 
While far around me, in the heated meadow, 

The busy insects swarm. 
Better than any roof these softly swaying 
leaves, 

Opening and closing to the passing air, 
Which from afar the fragrant breath receives 

Of forest odors rare. 

And, as the branches sway, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 165 



Revealing depths on depths of heavenly 
blue, 

The tempered rays of sunshine, glancing 
through 

In flickering spots of light, around me play ; 
While little birds dart through" the mazy web, 

With happy chirp and song, 

Fearing no wrong, 
To their half-hidden nests above my head. 
Thus, without motion, without speech or 
sound, 

I rest, — a part of all this life around. 

Beneath the shadow of the Great Protection 

The soul sits, hushed and calm. 
Bathed in the peace of that divine affection, 
No fever-heats of life or dull dejection 

Can work the spirit harm. 

Diviner heavens above 

Look down on it in love. 
And, as the varying winds move where they 
will, 

In whispers soft, through trackless fields of 
air, 

So comes the Spirit's breath, serene and still, 
Its tender messages of love to bear 
From men of every race and speech and 
zone, 

Making the whole world one, 
Till every sword shall to a sickle bend, 
And the long, weary strifes of earth shall end. 

Be happy, then, my heart, 
That thou in all hast part, — 
In all these outward gifts of time and sense, 



1 66 FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE, 



In all the spirit's nobler influence, 

In sun and snow and storm, 
In the vast life which flows through sea and 
sky, 

Through every changing form 

Whose beauty soon must die ; 

In the things seen, which ever pass away ; 

In things unseen, which shall forever stay; 

In the Eternal Love 

That lifts the soul above 
All earthly passion, grief, remorse, and care 

Which lower life must bear. 

Be happy now and ever, 
Since from the Love Divine no power the soul 
shall sever. 

For not our feeble nor our stormy 
past, 

Nor shadows from the future back- 
ward cast ; 
Not all the gulfs of evil far below, 
Nor mountain peaks of good which soar on 
high 

Into the unstained sky, 
Nor any power the universe can know ; 
Not the vast laws to whose control is given 
The blades of grass just springing from the 
sod, 

And stars within the unsounded depths of 
heaven, — 

Can touch the spirit hid with Christ in God. 
For nought that he has made, below, above, 
Can part us from his love. 



HOPE. 



July i. 

AND the child of faith is hope, equally im- 
mortal. Why do we believe in prog- 
ress ? Why do we try to make the world 
better ? Why do men expect to improve 
their condition ? It is because God has 
placed within the human heart this boundless 
expectation of something better to-morrow 
than we have to-day. The best evidence that 
there will be progress in this world and in the 
world to come is this, that hope is an abiding 
element in human nature. On this instinct 
rests, in a large degree, our belief in immor- 
tality, and a reunion with the loved and the 
lost in some better world beyond. And it is 
no delusion, no mere imagination, born of 
empty wishes. It rests on an immutable, un- 
changeable law of human nature planted in 
the soul by the Creator. It is more convinc- 
ing than any argument, more reasonable than 
the most subtle logic. It says : " O death, 
where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy 
victory ? " 



170 



MESSAGES OF 



July 2. 



HE deep foundation on which hope rests 



1 is faith in goodness, — faith that God is 
goodness, and that, therefore, goodness is 
stronger than evil, and must at last conquer 
all evil. We see evil around us, and we find 
evil in ourselves ; but, if we have faith in 
God, we are sure that the divine goodness will 
conquer it. With this unshaken trust planted 
in the soul, we can believe that all things are 
working together for ultimate happiness. We 
see life advancing around us, the world grow- 
ing better, and all things alive with the spirit 
of progress. We see one evil after another 
put down. So we have faith that other evils 
are also to disappear. With this trust in the 
depth of the heart, what will not man pa- 
tiently endure ? He can bear infirmity, want, 
bereavement, loneliness, so long as he can say 
with the apostle that he is persuaded "that 
neither life, nor death, nor angels, nor princi- 
palities, nor powers, nor things present, nor 
things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor 
any created thing, can separate us from the 
love of God which is in Christ Jesus our 
Lord." 



E must, however, see that Jesus does not 



V V teach any pure optimism in the sense 
of ignoring evil. Evil was to him something 
so real and terrible that it were better to cut 
off the right hand and pluck out the right 




July 3. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 1 7 1 



eye than yield to it. In this life evil is to be 
opposed constantly, untiringly, and with all 
our force. But, to do this, we must work in 
faith, not doubt ; in hope, not fear. To have 
courage to oppose evil, we must have hope to 
conquer it. We are soldiers; and we must 
fight on the side of truth, justice, goodness, 
against falsehood and wrong. But soldiers 
who have lost their courage are demoralized, 
and are already defeated. Jesus saw all the 
evil ; saw the power of temptation ; saw that, 
when the spirit is willing, the flesh is weak ; 
saw his approaching death, the disciples' de- 
sertion, the traitor's betrayal. But below it 
all he saw the foundation of rock, the great 
principle that God reigns, and that, therefore, 
truth and good must triumph. And this 
filled the depths of his soul with that central 
joy which causes the four Gospels to be full 
of sunshine, 

July 4. 

MEN in whom the ideas of the State are in- 
carnate, renew once more its decaying 
life. Good men save the State, but they can 
only save it when other men are capable 
of being moved and led by their examples. 
Hannibal could not save Carthage ; Marcus 
Antoninus could not save the Roman Em- 
pire ; Demosthenes could not save Greece ; 
and Jesus Christ himself could not save Jeru- 
salem from destruction. Nations can go too 
far to be saved. 

The great hope of this land is in the fact 



172 



MESSAGES OF 



that the mass of the people mean right, and, 
unless misled by demagogues, will do right. 
But, for this hope to be realized, all Christians 
and patriots must work together. Then we 
shall have in place of a nation hampered and 
fettered by evil institutions a great and noble 
Christian republic, with its face lifted to the 
future, and the rising sun of coming centuries 
of human progress glowing around its brow 
as an immortal halo of glory. 



July 5« 

HOW does mother Nature teach? She 
takes on herself the most difficult part 
of all the course, and she does her work 
thoroughly. Hers is the real primary school. 
She says, " I will take the little child who 
knows nothing, and I will teach him to know 
the use of his own body, the nature of the 
world about him, and the articulate language 
of his country." And she does it. The little 
child learns to see, hear, touch, taste, walk ; 
to jump, run, climb, hold objects, know what 
is hard and soft, heavy and light, round and 
square ; to know wood, stone, earth, water, 
air ; to distinguish between things near and 
distant, sounds remote and close by. Fi- 
nally, she teaches him to speak a language, 
he having no other language to learn it 
by. ... It is one of the most marvellous 
things, — if it were not so common we should 
see this, — a little child learning to speak. 
The difficulties he surmounts are far greater 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 173 

than we should encounter in learning Chinese 
or Sanskrit. And, observe, he does not ac- 
quire a smattering of language ; but he learns 
it thoroughly, so as to be able to use it for 
all practical purposes. Now, how does the 
dear mother do all this ? What is her 
method ? First, she mixes nine parts of 
pleasure and one of pain, nine of hope and 
one of fear, in her system. We do just about 
the opposite in ours. We imagine the child 
is not studying if it is having a good time. 
In nature's school it is only studying when it 
is happy : it works when it is at play. 



JOYFUL youth is the best prepara- 



i\ tion for an earnest manhood. A 
youth of suffering and privation prepares for 
discouragement and depression afterwards. 
. . . The memory of a sunny, free, happy 
childhood goes with us all our way. The 
memory of the good old grandparents who 
used to pet us and spoil us ; the memory of 
the ardent friendships of childhood ; of the 
beauty and bounty of nature ; the innocent 
pleasure furnished by earth and water, by 
bird and insect and flower and fruit, — all 
these leave their fragrance with us during 
life, and keep up our faith that love and hap- 
piness are the rule, sorrow and selfishness the 
exception. 

Happy child ! the roof of whose school- 
room is the blue heaven, with its drifting 



July 6. 




174 



MESSAGES OF 



clouds and mellow tints of sunrise and 
glories of evening; whose bench is the soft 
grass, the gray stone, the limb of the apple- 
tree ; whose books are all illustrated with 
moving, living forms, — waving trees, dewy 
leaves, wildflowers, all varieties of birds and 
insects and fishes and animals. How fast he 
learns ; rinding " tongues in trees, books in 
the running brooks, sermons in stones, and 
good in everything ! " 

July 7- 

THERE is no more important work in this 
world, no greater duty, than to help 
others to keep up their courage. I consider 
it the chief duty of the Christian pulpit to 
encourage those whom life discourages. I 
think every Sunday should inspire us with 
new heart for work, every sermon and act of 
worship renew our energy and put fresh en- 
thusiasm into our souls for the great bat- 
tle of existence. He is our best friend 
whose words of cheerful confidence give more 
life to our heart ; and he is our enemy who, 
by his words of doubt and his spirit of fear, 
saps this ardor, and takes from us our cour- 
age. 

The great danger is of being discouraged 
by dwelling exclusively or mainly on the dark 
side of the world ; for this ends in despond- 
ency, apathy, and moral indifference. 

To work without hope is discouraging. We 
need the sense of progress to cheer and sus- 
tain us. To go round and round in a tread- 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE, 1 75 

mill of mere drudgery takes our spirit out of 
us. Therefore, we need a deeper and larger 
hope. We need to have faith in mental, 
moral, and spiritual progress, in the growth 
of the soul, in the unfolding of its higher 
powers, its larger faculties. We need to have 
faith that the years, as they come and go, 
may give us a deeper experience, may lift us 
to a larger vision, may enable us to come 
nearer to God in faith, nearer to man in 
human sympathy and love. 

When we have this sense of spiritual prog- 
ress, we can bear outward disappointments 
more easily, sure that pain and sorrow will 
work for our highest good. 



HERE is an organ of hope in the brain 



1 which perpetually looks forward. It is 
the instinct of the future. It teaches us that 
there is not less life for us after death, but 
more; not less of power, knowledge, love, 
work, beauty, joy, but more. This belief in 
the future life does not rest on knowledge or 
argument, but on the habit of looking forward 
in faith and trust. Some have more of it, 
some less. It may be strengthened by exer- 
cise. We may look at the dark side or the 
bright side of things, as we choose. We may 
look down or up, we may look at our sorrows 
and trials or at our joys. By looking at the 
dark side, we lose the power of seeing good. 
We see only what is selfish, cold, and hard in 



July 8. 




i 7 6 



MESSAGES OF 



men, only what is dark and terrible in the 
universe. Seek, and you shall rind. You 
have what you look after. As a man sows, 
so shall he reap. A man may think that he 
believes in a future life because of the argu- 
ments in its favor : he may think that he dis- 
believes it because he has been convinced by 
the arguments against it. Xo : he believes 
in it because he has established the habit of 
looking at the good side of things, because 
he has exercised and educated his organs of 
faith and hope. He disbelieves it because 
he has not exercised and educated them. 



ERHAPS it may be said. It is well for 



1 those who are naturally hopeful: but 
what for us who are not so ? How can we. 
who naturally look on the dark side of things, 
who are easily discouraged, learn to be more 
hopeful ? 

The organic faculty of hope differs in dif- 
ferent men. But the higher kind of hope, the 
religious hope, born of conviction, all men 
may have. All true religion is hopeful, be- 
cause the difference between religion and su- 
perstition is. that to the religious man God 
is goodness, to the superstitious man God is 
terror. True religion is that which trusts in 
the goodness of God. which believes good 
stronger than evil, truth more powerful than 
error, right sure to conquer wrong. It is a 
kingdom of heaven coming to take the place 



July 9. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 177 

of hell on the earth. It is, indeed, faith, not 
sight. But this faith comes to us in all our 
best hours. When we are in our highest 
mood, we believe in the goodness of God, in 
the commanding authority of duty, in the im- 
mortality of the soul. When we are true, 
brave, strong, generous, pure, we believe in 
God. When we are cowardly, mean, selfish, 
then we believe in the devil. 

If, then, we wish to cultivate and strengthen 
our hope, it must be by increasing our faith in 
goodness and a God of love. We must have 
faith in the true God, and that is essentially 
faith in goodness. Faith in God grows as we 
live in it and from it. As we believe in jus- 
tice, truth, honor, and act from that belief, 
our faith in God and goodness continually be- 
comes stronger. 



HIS, then, is one distinction between the 



1 true hope and the false one. The hope 
which deceives is that which promises us fut- 
ure good with no co-operation of ours. We 
think to have the end without using the 
means. We trust in luck, in fortune, in gen- 
ius, not in thought and work. What we wish 
and vaguely expect is to find some pot of 
gold in the ground, to draw the prize in the 
lottery, to be helped by some powerful friend. 
Those in whom this fictitious and illusive 
hopefulness is strong love to read fairy 
stories and imagine themselves the heroes ; 
are tempted to gamble at cards or in stocks ; 



July 10. 




i 7 8 



MESSAGES OF 



prefer speculation to legitimate business ; 
wish to be rich at once. All they undertake, 
they undertake blindly, trusting in their good 
fortune, refusing to look at the conditions of 
success or the difficulties in their way. So 
their life is apt to be one long failure. 

The true hope, on the contrary, is one 
which is willing to think, wait, and act. It is 
in no hurry, does not expect instant success. 
This is what the Scripture means by the " pa- 
tience of hope." True hope is very patient. 
It relies on the working of immutable laws, 
which are sure to bring success at last. The 
man who has this principle in him does not 
read fairy tales, but the biographies of those 
who have done great things. He sees how 
many difficulties they encountered, how many 
disappointments they met, how often they 
were baffled. He sees how they had the 
" patience of hope"; how they tried again 
and again and again ; how they learned 
something by every failure ; and how, at last, 
when success came, they had fairly conquered 
it by honest, careful, thoughtful, persevering 
work. 

July ii. 

FAITH in God gives faith in the divine 
laws as the regular method by which 
truth and goodness are to prevail. As the 
world acquires more faith in the supremacy 
and universality of law, it also comes to be- 
lieve more in progress. Our trust in the 
order of the universe gives the hope of great 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 179 

advances and improvements in the material 
and moral order. No matter what difficulties 
intervene, we trust that order will emerge out 
of confusion, and prevail more and more. 

Faith in God as goodness inspires faith in 
ourselves, and, therefore, hope that we are 
made for something, meant for something, 
and that by perseverance we can accom- 
plish something. Thus faith in God is the 
root and the strength of all sure hope. 

Jesus was full of this divine hope. In the 
midst of loneliness, opposition, and apparent 
failure, he looked forward to the hour when 
he should draw all men unto him ; when he 
should judge the earth by his truth ; come in 
his kingdom, and be recognized as the light 
of the world and the king of truth. His was 
no illusive hope, fed by his wishes alone. 
He saw all the evil, the wars, the persecu- 
tions, which should precede his triumph. 
But he had no doubt of the result. 



HE path of progress for each individual 



1 soul lies along this highway of hope. 
This is the way of salvation. Until we attain 
this divine hope in the supremacy and ulti- 
mate triumph of good in the universe, we are 
lost souls, dead souls, — dead while we seem 
to live. Without hope there is no spring of 
vital power in the human heart which carries 
life forward. A man having no faith in prov- 
idence, in the love of God, in human prog- 



July 12. 




i8o 



MESSAGES OF 



ress, in immortality, may be. indeed, a consci- 
entious, honest, and good man. But his good- 
ness is without enthusiasm, with no magnetic 
power, with no force to create life in other 
souls. But with hope at the centre of the 
soul all things become alive. As these sum- 
mer days have roused all nature to a green 
and growing vitality, so, when hope enters the 
soul, it makes all things new. It insures the 
progress which it predicts. Rooted in faith, 
growing up into love, — these make the three 
immortal graces of the gospel whose concur- 
rent voices shed joy and peace over all of our 
human life, 

July 13. 

LET us have faith, then, that we can over- 
come evil with good. We can overcome 
the evil in ourselves by the good which is also 
there. Whatever may be our fault, our be- 
setting sin, God has given us some power by 
which to overcome it. Believe in yourself as 
a child of God, as one whom God has made 
for himself, and whom he means to help out 
of all that is bad into whatsoever things are 
pure and noble and good. Have the same 
faith for others. Find those who are dis- 
couraged, and give them confidence. Help 
them to hope for themselves. Be not over- 
come of evil. Evil overcomes us when it dis- 
courages us, kills our faith in God, in man, 
and in ourselves. It overcomes us when it 
teaches us to despise others and to hope little 
for ourselves ; when it destroys our ideals, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 181 



and teaches us to scorn the dreams and hopes 
of youth. But in every hour of faith and 
hope and love we are overcoming evil with 
good. 

July 14. 

LET us believe in the great laws by which 
good is born evermore out of evil, and 
life out of death. Let us trust and hope, and 
look forward, and work on. O broken hearts, 
weighed down with unutterable grief, look 
up, and see that the Lord reigns ; that a wis- 
dom, so mighty as to be inexplicable to us 
now, is sweeping on to the vast issues of eter- 
nity. We are too happy in being permitted 
to live; to be spectators of this great pano- 
rama ; to be actors with God on this divine 
stage of being. Be thankful for each day. 
Be patient with what seems the delay in the 
progress of truth, the advance in Christianity, 
the triumph of justice, the development of the 
human race. 

July 15. 

JESUS comes to us all to say : " Do not 
be discouraged. Never be discouraged." 
Though evil may abound, and the love of 
many grow cold, though we see no way out of 
surrounding difficulties, though even our 
brethren discourage our heart by their gloomy 
forebodings, and abandon the good cause, 
leaving us alone, still, let us never be discour- 
aged. 



l82 



MESSAGES OF 



Do not be discouraged in doing good. It 
may often seem as if you accomplished very 
little ; as if, with all your efforts, you cannot 
effectually help those whom you wish to serve. 
When you lift them up, they fall again. You 
may even sometimes find that your very help 
seems to do them harm. They relax their 
own efforts, and lean on you. Then comes 
the danger of thinking that all effort is use- 
less, that to endeavor to aid the inefficient is 
always to discourage the laborious, and that 
the stern laws of retribution should be left to 
work out their own remedy. 

But I believe we ought not merely to help 
ourselves, but to help each other. We may 
often make mistakes. We may sometimes do 
harm. But the greatest mistake of all would 
be to stand aloof from human sorrow. It was 
no mistake when Jesus came to seek and save 
those who were lost, to bind up the broken- 
hearted, and to bring comfort to the forlorn. 
It was no mistake when he said, " Come unto 
me, all ye that labor and are heavy-laden, and 
I will give you rest, 5 ' Best of all blessings 
is that human love, that generous sympathy, 
which puts itself in the place of the sufferer, 
and gives him the comfort of knowing that he 
is not alone in the world, not forgotten by his 
fellow-men. The good of this is never lost. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 183 



July 16. 

LET us not be discouraged by the amount 
of suffering and sin which we see around 
us. Always remember that these evils come 
to the surface, while the good is hidden. If 
the vast majority of men did not tell the truth, 
keep their promises, hold fast to honesty, 
society would dissolve and become a heap of 
sand. Be not discouraged, then, because you 
see and hear so much of what is evil in the 
world, but be sure that the good is much 
more wide-spread and more powerful. 

Courage comes to us when we remember 
that evil is transient and good permanent, 
that error is fleeting and that truth is eternal, 
that God is on the side of all things just, hon- 
est, pure, and noble. Then we can say with 
the poet : — 

" That more and more a Providence 
Of Love is understood, 
Making the springs of time and sense 
Sweet with eternal good. 

" That care and trial seem at last, 
In memory's sunset air, 
Like mountain ranges overpast, 
In purple distance fair. 

" That all the jarring notes of life 
Are blended in a psalm, 
And all the angles of its strife 
Slow rounded into calm. 

"And so the shadows fall apart, 
And so the west winds play ; 
And all the windows of my heart 
I open to the day." 



184 MESSAGES OF 

July 17. 

SUPPOSE we have no sense of spiritual 
progress ; that we do not seem to be 
growing wiser or better as the years pass by ; 
that we often find ourselves, in some respects, 
worse than we were ; that our conscience is 
not as sensitive, our purpose to do right not 
as fixed, our aim not as high. 

When we find nothing in ourselves on which 
to lean, Christ teaches us to lean more en- 
tirely on the pardoning grace of God and 
God's spiritual help. 

Jesus does not come as a physician to those 
who are whole, but to those who are sick. 
He comes to the poor in spirit, to the spirit- 
ually poor, to those who find little in them- 
selves in which to trust. He speaks to these 
of the infinite fatherly love, of the perfect 
providence, of Him whose will it is that not one 
of his little ones should perish. He comes to 
say to him who is discouraged, " Son, be of 
good cheer, thy sins are forgiven thee"; to 
bind up the wounds of the broken-hearted, 
and open the eyes of the blind, that they may 
see the Comforter, the Holy Spirit. 

Do not despair of yourself. The seed of 
truth and good is not dead. If God has 
planted it in your heart, he means that it shall 
grow. 

July 18. 

YOUNG people are apt to suppose that 
they can, whenever they choose, leave 
off a wrong habit, and form a right one, by 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 185 

merely making a resolution. A young girl 
sees that she has a quick temper, and she de- 
termines that she will henceforth never use 
a hasty or angry word. Having made this 
good resolution, she finds before the day is 
over that she has fallen into the same ill- 
temper as before, and said the same unkind 
things. So it is with other bad habits. We 
resolve to break away from them, but the 
resolution has no apparent effect. Then we 
say : " It is of no use. I have tried in vain. 
I have resolved, and I have not been able to 
keep my resolution. " 

To a person who speaks thus I should say : 
" It is not only true that you cannot conquer 
a bad habit by a resolution, but it is a good 
thing that you cannot do so. If a bad habit 
could be overcome in a moment by a single 
resolution, a good habit might be lost in a 
moment. If a man could change his char- 
acter by a determination, that would show he 
had no character to change. But this does 
not prove that a resolution to do right is use- 
less. A right purpose, a good determination, 
is an important step : it places us in a right 
direction.'' 

The power of inertia in morals makes it 
difficult to begin, but easy to go on. The 
harder it is at first to form a good habit, the 
more sure we are that, when formed, it will 
last. The real difficulty is in the beginning. 
As we go on, we acquire more power to keep 
in the right way. If the vis inertia in nature 
is a good thing, being really an outcome of 
the larger law which preserves all the forces 



i86 



MESSAGES OF 



of the universe, why is not the vis inertia of 
the soul a good thing ? Instead of being dis- 
couraged because it is hard to build up good 
habits and a good character, we ought to be 
thankful for this, as a sure evidence that, 
when formed, they will last. 



RIALS are necessary for us : they are the 



1 common lot. But there is always a way 
of escape if we will look for it. Sometimes 
it is found in solitude, sometimes in society, 
sometimes in prayer, sometimes in action. 
Sometimes friendship will help us. Some- 
times the best thing we can do is to tell our 
troubles to another, and sometimes the only 
help is in telling them to God. The greater 
the temptation, the higher the help. To live 
in the spirit of trust and submission, of hope 
and faith and love, — -this is the surest aid. If 
we live in the spirit, we shall walk in the spirit. 
There has no temptation come to any of us but 
what is common to man ; no temptation which 
is above our strength; no temptation from 
which there is not an escape. All come to try 
us and do us good ; to humble and prove us, 
and let us see what is in our heart; to show 
us our dangers and our weakness. When we 
have learned these, then we may pray, " Lead 
us not into temptation " ; and we shall need it 
no longer, and God will command the devil 
to leave us, and angels to come and minister 
to us. 



July 19. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 187 

July 20. 

LET us hold to all that we are able to see 
of spiritual realities, and so learn to be- 
lieve and know more. If we cannot believe 
in the whole Bible, let us believe in a part of 
it. If we cannot believe in the miracles of 
Christ, let us believe in his goodness. If the 
sayings of Paul are dark, let us read the Ser- 
mon on the Mount and the parable of the 
Good Samaritan. If we cannot accept Chris- 
tianity as a supernatural religion, let us hold 
fast to it as the best of all natural religions. 
If we cannot resist and conquer all the temp- 
tations that beset us, let us resist and deny all 
that we can. Begin now, begin to-day, with 
the determination to do all you can, to have 
all the faith and hope and love you can, and 
trust that your heavenly Father will give you 
help and power and strength to conquer at 
last all evil, and to gain all good. This is 
only common sense applied to religion. If 
I wish to climb Mount Shasta or the peak of 
Chimborazo, I do not satisfy myself by look- 
ing up, and saying, "What an inaccessible 
summit ! " but I go up the mountain, step by 
step. So let us begin the long but grand 
ascent which leads to the love of God and 
love of man, 

July 21. 

THE Lord reigns: let the earth rejoice! 
Chance does not reign ; Fate does not 
reign ; Man does not reign. He reigns who 



iSS 



MESSAGES OF 



forever educes lasting good out of transient 
evil. 

July 22. 

IF we trace this spirit of joy to its profound 
source in the soul, we shall rind that it 
comes from a hope of better things in the 
future than we have in the present. It is the 
spirit of hope toward God ; hope full of im- 
mortality, which rejoices in the coming glory 
of God : hope born of experience ; hope 
which makes not ashamed. It is hope which 
inspires courage, which is the spring of prog- 
ress, without which progress will never take 
place. 

Unhappily, Christians have not always held 
to this high hope. They have often allowed 
themselves to doubt the perfect love of the 
Father, and to relapse into the Paganism of 
earlier ages. They have thought it a merit to 
be sad. and have placed religion in self-tort- 
ure and ascetic denial. They have believed 
in dark superstitions, in the power of Satan, 
in a God of wrath, an everlasting hell by the 
side of an everlasting heaven. Thus the 
great hope of Christ has been darkened in 
human hearts. And this is why it is neces- 
sary to say, " Rejoice ! " " Rejoice in hope." 
" Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say 
rejoice.'"' Rejoice always ! Not merely when 
you are well and strong and doing right, but 
when the clouds of evil and wrong close 
around you and darken your day. Rejoice 
always, for God is always near, and his sup- 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 189 

port will never fail. Rejoice ! for it is good 
and right to hope, and without hope we are 
without God in the world. 



O Christ love was omnipotent, — sure to 



1 conquer evil at last, almighty to redeem, 
with infinite power to save. 

The oldest creed in Christendom is that 
which declares that Jesus is the Christ. The 
meaning of that creed is that goodness is the 
real king of the world. The Jewish nation 
was expecting a Christ of outward earthly 
power, a temporal king, a son of David ; like 
David, a conqueror of nations, a warlike mon- 
arch. 

But, as Paul puts it, " No one can say that 
Jesus is the Christ but by the Holy Ghost." 
That is, no one can believe in the all-conquer- 
ing power of love who has not in his heart 
something akin to that spirit. One who 
thinks that men must be governed by force 
or imposed upon by contrivances, — such a 
man can never believe that Jesus is the true 
Christ. He substitutes another Jesus, com- 
ing at the end of the ages to judge the world 
with power, armed with vengeance, not con- 
verting his enemies, but punishing them. To 
such a man evil seems stronger than good. 
He believes not in a Christ formed within 
us, the hope of glory, but in an outward, 
visible Christ, coming at the end of the 
world. 



July 23. 




190 



MESSAGES OF 



July 24. 

"DE not overcome of evil, but overcome 
D evil with good." This single sentence 
contains the substance of Christian ethics. 
All evil in ourselves or in others must be con- 
quered by good. Evil can never conquer 
evil, or Satan cast out Satan. That which 
makes Christianity a power to improve the 
world is that it inspires faith that good is 
stronger than evil, truth than falsehood, right 
than wrong ; and that, in the long run, truth, 
right, and good must conquer, and Jesus 
reign until he has subdued all enemies under 
his feet. 

We are, all of us, apt to be appalled by the 
amount of evil in the world, and to have a 
frequent access of doubt, when we find it 
hard to believe in the all-conquering power of 
good. 

This is what is meant by being " overcome 
of evil." It means not that we are made 
evil, not that we have become servants of sin, 
but that we believe in the power of evil. 
Evil seems so mighty that it is hopeless to 
resist it. It is in vain to ask in our daily 
prayer that God's will shall be done on earth 
as it is in heaven. The rest of the prayer 
may be a prayer of faith ; but over that clause 
hangs, when we repeat it, a shadow of unbe- 
lief. We ask, not expecting to receive. We 
do not really believe that God's will can ever 
be done on earth as it is in heaven. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 191 



July 25. 



I DO not mean to say that it is an easy thing 
to overcome evil with good. But I be- 
lieve it is the only way by wiiich evil has been 
conquered or ever can be. When we think 
of those who have been our spiritual benefac- 
tors, who have made our lives better, we shall 
find that it has been those who had faith in 
human goodness. They had more confidence 
in us, more hope for us, than we had for our- 
selves. They encouraged us when we were 
ready to despair. They overcame our evil 
with their good. 

O sweet and heavenly souls, who have had 
Christ formed within you, how have you in 
every age been the sunshine, the joy, the hope, 
of the world ! Strict with yourselves, gentle 
and generous with others, you have been the 
sacred leaven in the Church and the world. 
These are the real blessings of our lives, for 
which we are the most grateful. 



HE gift of Jesus to mankind has been his 



1 faith in the never-failing presence of an 
infinite love. He, first of all human beings, 
rose to this perfect and unfailing confidence, 
and so has inspired the human race with this 
divine influence, which will continue to work 
till the whole world is full of the knowledge of 
God. This is our hope in dark hours, in be- 
reavements, in disappointments, in the midst 



July 26. 




192 



MESSAGES OF 



of temptation and evil This is our hope 
when good seems conquered and wickedness 
triumphant. This is our hope when we our- 
selves fail of our duty and fall into wrong. 
It is that God is still our Father, Helper, 
Friend, and that all things will end in 
good at last. This is the hope full of immor- 
tality when we stand by the grave of our dear 
ones, and when we ourselves bid farewell to 
life. This hope is the power of progress, the 
secret of improvement, the motive for earnest 
effort to make the world better and life hap- 
pier. That is why we are told to rejoice in 
the hope of the glory of God. 



July 27. 

HE is our best friend who shows us that 
he believes in us ; that he has con- 
fidence in our capacity to become something 
noble and good ; who has faith in us that we 
are capable of heavenly aspiration and devo- 
tion to all things true and right. Such a 
noble friend was Paul to his disciples, the 
lowly, half-developed men of Colossae and 
Ephesus. He exhorted them to a virtue 
nobler than that of which the wisest sage had 
ever dreamed. He invited them to go up 
with him to a height of purity of which no 
Stoic or Platonist had ever had a conception. 
"The perfect man in Christ Jesus/' — this was 
the heavenly vision which moved before him 
always. By means of this great hope he 
roused and lifted the world. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 193 

July 28. 

HERE are prophets, seers, inspired souls, 



1 in all religions and in all nations. They 
are those in whom these intuitions of con- 
science, faith, hope, and love are strong. 
They are the men of intuition, who see 
through their inward eye, not their outward 
eye. They have not believed as every one 
else believed, but have looked into their own 
souls for truth, and have found it. They 
have seen God face to face. In the darkness 
of night they have seen the rose of dawn, and 
have announced to all men the coming day. 
They hold up the heart of nations ; they come 
in great emergencies, to add faith and fire to 
noble resolutions ; they suffer and die for 
their convictions, and so inspire others with a 
like resolution. These are the prophets who 
have been since the world began, — the 
prophets, unrecognized in their own time, 
despised and rejected of men, but heralds of 
every great advance of the human race. 
Their power lies in the strength of their intui- 
tions. They see God, truth, justice, and 
beauty as realities, not as probabilities. In- 
spired by these visions, they are ready to 
speak their word, whether men will hear or 
whether they will forbear. They die in ob- 
scurity, perhaps, and defeat ; but their lightest 
words live and conquer the world, and grow 
up into great trees, in which all the birds of 
the air find rest. 




194 



MESSAGES OF 



July 29. 

THAT Christ shall "reign until he hath 
subdued all things under him" was the 
firm belief of the apostle Paul. That " every 
knee should bow, and every tongue confess 
Christ to be Lord, to the glory of God the 
Father, ' ' — this was his plain declaration. That 
all evil should be ultimately swallowed up in 
good was the distinctly proclaimed optimism 
of the great apostle, who had seen more and 
suffered more of the misery and wretchedness 
of the world than most men had ever dreamed. 

All the suffering, all the sin, all the misery, 
of time and eternity, never made him doubt 
for a moment the ultimate and entire triumph 
of truth and love. 

July 30. 

O DIVINE vision of a perfect time! O 
heavenly glory of an hour when all sin 
and shame shall cease, all tears be wiped 
away, all wrongs redressed ! and human souls, 
redeemed and purified, shall be like the stars 
of heaven, one star differing from another in 
glory, but each raying out its own light. With 
such a hope in his heart the great apostle 
could bear all things, believe all things, en- 
dure all things. 

In his far-reaching vision he saw a time 
when, " in the name of Jesus, every knee 
should bow, of things in heaven, and things on 
earth, and things under the earth " ; when all 
who died with Adam in sin and misery should 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 195 

be "made alive in Christ," in peace and love. 
Nothing less than this could satisfy the desire 
of that large heart. 

The Church has not yet reached this faith. 
It still disbelieves that good will overcome 
evil, or that Christ's redeeming power will be 
sufficient to save all God's children. When 
that hope is born again in the Church, it will 
renew its youth. It will see a new heaven and 
a new earth, and begin once more the course 
of a united and blessed body having one 
heart and one soul. 

July 31. 

ALL things work together for good to those 
that love God. Things present and 
things to come are equally ours. The future 
lies hid in the present ; and, if we so act as to 
possess the present, we also possess the future. 
The best way to prepare for death is to pre- 
pare for life. Make ready every day to live 
to some good purpose. Put into every day 
some generous thought for others, some help, 
some sympathy, some good will, and then you 
take possession of this world and the next. 

To do this effectually and constantly, we 
must have faith and hope. Love is born out 
of these. Without faith in a divine presence 
and a divine love we become discouraged in 
our efforts to do good. Love to man is born 
out of love to God. And love to God is born 
out of faith in him as an all-surrounding, all- 
attending presence; as one who cares for us 
because he has made us for himself ; as one 



196 FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 

always patient with our weakness and folly, 
and able to overcome our evil with his good. 
Believing in such a divine compassion and 
care, which never leaves us, we can receive 
strength from this source with which to do 
something for our fellow-men. We can work 
for others when we know that into our open 
and trusting hearts new power will always 
come from above. If God asks us to do any- 
thing for others, he will give us the power 
with which to do it. Thus "all things are 
ours " when we feel that we are Christ's, and 
that Christ is God's. 



Hugusi 



LOVE. 



August i. 

BUT best and most blessed of all abiding 
things is love. Love is the spirit of life, 
and makes all things live. Without love, life 
is not worth living. It is in the first look of 
intelligence which we discover in the infant's 
eye : it is in the last feeble pressure of the 
hand of the dying. Nothing is so real as this : 
it alone has solidity, substance, and essential 
being. Selfishness is not enduring. In its 
very nature, it destroys itself. The selfish 
man is only half alive. He lives alone in a 
cold isolation of soul. 

In all religions the essential part is love. 
Christianity is the highest of all, because it 
sums up its whole law in these words, " Love 
God and love man." And amid all the 
changes of creeds, the strife of parties, the 
reforms and revolutions of the Church, this 
has been one of the unchanging factors. No 
heresy ever denied love : no papal decree 
ever denounced piety and humanity. Amid 
all storms love continued : love had its abode 



200 



MESSAGES OF 



in many a humble home, in many a meek and 
trusting heart. In the hardest and most 
cruel days love prompted men and women to 
feed the hungry, clothe the naked, visit the 
prisoner, redeem the slave, cleanse the leper, 
and bring comfort to the forlorn. 

Love abides. This is the very essence of 
Christianity. And this blessed gift comes 
direct from God. When the poor woman 
knelt at the feet of Jesus, he said, " She loves 
much because she has been forgiven much." 
Love is born out of our penitence when we 
look to God for pardon, and find his comfort 
and peace descending into our heart. "We 
love him because he first loved us." 



HAT which makes this earth seem solid is 



1 not the rocks and mountains that are in 
it, but the love that is in it. Love, joining 
hands with faith and work, makes our life 
rich and full. These three, neither of them 
alone, — work which is done in love, love which 
is born of faith. And it is a blessed thing 
that, the longer we live thus, the more beauti- 
ful the world becomes, the more rich and 
precious our life seems. It is the young who 
are oftenest tired of life. As we live on, we 
seem to grow younger, not older. We find 
ourselves coming nearer to God and man. 
We grow more like little children in our 
hearts. Beautiful is age when it does not be- 
come hard and cold, but grows evermore full 



August 2. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 201 

of faith and love. The old man looks back- 
ward through a life in which he has learned 
to know the wonders of nature ; to know the 
heart and thoughts of many varieties of hu- 
man beings ; in which he has done faithfully 
his part in the world in his own place. He 
looks back over the long perspective, and he 
sees how kindly God has led him on ; how he 
has been taught by disappointment and suc- 
cess ; how he has gone deep into his own 
heart, gathered up wisdom, become truly free 
by self-control and self -direction ; how he has 
ceased to think of God as Power and Law 
only, and come to think of him as Friend and 
Father. And he wonders that he ever could 
have been weary of life ; he feels the infinite 
riches of the universe, and thanks God in the 
depths of a happy heart for the gift of exis- 
tence. 



HE heart has a deeper wisdom than the 



1 head. Its faith, its hope, and its love 
predict and assure a better future than the 
mere intellect can foresee. Everything that 
is greatly good in the world has been accom- 
plished by the power of faith, not resting on 
outward evidence, but on the inward evi- 
dence of the heart. How has Christianity 
triumphed ? Not by its miracles. Our books 
teach us to believe in Christ because of his 
miracles ; but who really believes in Christ 
because of his miracles ? We believe in 
him because we love him. Love leads to 



August 3. 




202 



MESSAGES OF 



knowledge. He " draws all men unto him." 
" His sheep hear his voice, and follow him." 
The head believes in God by means of ar- 
gument: the heart sees him. " Blessed are 
the pure in heart ; for they shall see God." 
The intellect reasons about immortality : the 
heart knows it. The intellect proves Chris- 
tianity to be true. The heart of man, in all 
ages, feels the truth of that generous faith 
which brings God near to us as a Father; 
which reveals man as a brother; which re- 
strains the tyrant, and breaks the fetters of 
the slave; which supports the head of the 
feeble and sick, and opens heaven to the 
dying eye. 



HEREFORE is love also a true prophet. 



1 It looks through the darkness of the 
present, — through pain, disappointment, trial, 
sorrow, bereavement, loneliness, — and sees all 
things working together for good. The true 
optimism comes to us when we love. When 
we forget ourselves, and love others ; when we 
forget our selfishness, and share in God's in- 
terest in mankind ; when we throw ourselves 
into life, and follow Christ in his trust in God, 
his hope for man, — then the heavens again 
smile. Then the day dawns peacefully, and 
the night closes serenely. Then we look 
through all anxiety, and see good beyond. 
Then, when we lay our beloved in the grave, 
we have a hope full of immortality in our 
hearts. Mortality is swallowed up of life. 



August 4. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 203 



Our faith in God is faith in good. Let our 
hearts be wrung with bitterest disappointment 
and sorrow, we have within us a sure word of 
prophecy, to which we can continually resort 
till the day-dawn and the day-star arise in our 
hearts. 

August 5. 

WE live also by love. He who loves no 
one and is loved by no one is only 
half alive. We need the daily bread of 
human affection. 

All love is of grace. It is never deserved. 
Nobody ever deserved to be loved; but being 
loved makes us more deserving than anything 
else can. 

August 6. 

MANY persons abstain from prayer be- 
cause they think they are not good 
enough to pray. Suppose your child should 
refuse to talk with you for the same reason. 
Your little daughter remains perfectly silent 
in your presence, never shows the smallest 
disposition to prattle or to ask for anything, 
You say, " Why are you so silent, my child ? " 
She replies, " Because I am not good enough 
to talk to you." You would think that a 
curious reason. You love to have your child 
overflow with expansive utterance of every- 
thing it cares about, to ask for everything it 
wants. Do you not suppose that God also is 
pleased to have his children come to him with 



204 



MESSAGES OF 



childlike trust ? I think he is pleased to 
have us say everything to him we care to say. 

Many think they are not good enough to 
see their friends hereafter. But were they 
good enough to see them here ? Was it 
because of any merit of yours or mine that 
God has given to us, in this world, such friend- 
ship, such generous love ? 

What did you or I ever do to earn the 
tender, never-ceasing, never-resting love of 
our parents, the noble influence of our friends, 
the inspiration which has come to us from the 
wise, the reverent, the pure hearts who have 
made of us all that we are ? If God gave us 
all this of his free grace here, we may trust 
that he will give us friendship and love here- 
after. 



August 7. 

MANY think they are not good enough 
to become members of the Christian 
Church or to profess their faith in God and 
Christ. Are we good enough to be inhabi- 
tants of this world ? Did we ever do any- 
thing to obtain a right to be members of the 
church of humanity ? If a man becomes a 
member of Christ's Church, he must come in 
as Peter came, and as Paul came, who came 
not because they were good, but because 
Christ called them. If we hear the voice of 
this great Master, saying, " Come to me, and I 
will give you rest," that is enough. 

When, therefore, persons are tormented 
and troubled because they think they are not 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 205 

good enough to go to heaven when they die, 
let them remember that this is so, but also 
that no one else is good enough. No one 
deserves heaven. Heaven, certainly, is not 
of debt, but of grace. Heaven, which means 
a better life beyond even than this, — a life 
where we shall be higher up, and less exposed 
to temptation, sorrow, and evil, with larger 
opportunities and deeper insights, — this will 
come to all, not because they deserve it or 
have earned it, but because the divine wisdom 
and divine love has ordained that life shall be 
ascent, rising up, going forward from good to 
better. Not because we are good enough, 
but because God is good enough, do we hope 
to go upward, and not downward, when we 
die. 

August 8. 

GRACE means unbought benefits. The 
immense majority of the good things 
we enjoy in this life are unbought. What 
did we do to earn our life? Existence is a 
free gift. The soul with its divine powers, its 
immortal faculties, its memory running back- 
ward, its purposes running forward, its 
solemn-voiced conscience, making eternal dis- 
tinction between right and wrong, its affec- 
tions, capable of flooding life with the radi- 
ance of love, its aspirations, striving upward 
toward the infinite God, — what did we do to 
earn this ? It is all a free gift to us from 
God. 

And this magnificent universe into which 



206 



MESSAGES OF 



we have come, with its boundless, inexhaust- 
ible varieties of minerals, plants, animals, its 
skies and sea, its mountains and forests, its 
sun and stars, its social life, natural history, 
science, art, literature, — what did we do to 
earn our share in all these ? Nothing. They 
are of free grace, the outpouring of God's 
exuberant bounty. 

Many persons are gloomy, doubtful, dis- 
couraged, because they do not believe they 
are good enough for heaven. Who is good 
enough for heaven ? Who is good enough 
for earth ? God does not give us this world 
because we have earned it by our goodness. 
He gives it because he is good himself. So, 
if we have a better world hereafter, it will be 
for the same reason. 

Your child comes to you some morning 
looking very gloomy, and you ask him what is 
the matter. He says, " I am afraid you will 
turn me out of doors ; and then what will be- 
come of me, for I cannot take care of myself? " 
You ask: "What makes you think so, my 
child ? • Do you doubt my love to you ? " " Oh, 
no," he replies, "not at all. But, then, I have 
never done anything to deserve that you 
should take care of me. I am not good 
enough to be provided for in this way. I have 
not earned it by any past efforts." You say, 
" My dear boy, I do not take care of you be- 
cause of your merits, but because you are my 
child." Is it not probable that God may take 
care of us, here and hereafter, for the same 
reason, — not because of our merits, but be- 
cause we are his children ? 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 207 

August 9. 



1 fight against them, but to cure them by 
taking interest in the opposite good. The 
best way to cure intemperance is to give the 
intemperate man some higher interests, — to 
interest him in better things than meat and 
drink. To cure a man of the love of money, 
interest him in giving money to good things, 
— make him take pleasure in giving as well 
as gaining. To cure a man or boy of cruelty 
to animals, interest him in the life of ani- 
mals by teaching him natural history. And 
to cure men of evil, help them to love the su- 
preme goodness. This was the method of 
Jesus. So he filled men with the fulness of 
God ; so he vitalized the world with a higher 
faith and hope. You cannot cast out demons 
by the help of demons, but only by the power 
of God. 

The best cure for bodily disease or ill- 
health is to quicken the life of the body, put 
more vitality into it, fill it full of bodily life. 
The cure for intellectual disease or errors is 
to vitalize the mind, quicken its interest in 
truth, fill the mind with mental life. The cure 
for moral disease or vicious habits is to vital- 
ize the moral nature, awaken the conscience, 
rouse the sense of responsibility, make good- 
ness attractive and lovable. The cure for 
spiritual disease, or sin, is to vitalize the soul, 
and fill it full of spiritual life by making God 
lovable. This is what Jesus came to do, and 
did. " I am come that they might have life, 




cure our faults is not to 



2 08 



MESSAGES OF 



and that they might have it more abundantly." 
He did not come to teach a stricter law of 
duty, but to make law and desire one in mak- 
ing us love what is good. " Love is the ful- 
filling of the law." 



O know that there are some souls, hearts, 



1 and minds, here and there, who trust us 
and whom we trust, some who know us and 
whom we know, some on whom we can al- 
ways rely and who will always rely on us, 
makes a paradise of this great world. This 
makes our life really life. This makes us 
immortal while we are here. This makes us 
sure that death is no end, but only a begin- 
ning to us and to all we love. It is only 
love and insight which show us our true 
selves. Cold sagacity misjudges us : mere 
sympathy, feeble good nature, soothes, but 
does not essentially help us. But love illum- 
inated by truth, truth warmed through and 
through by love, — these perform for us the 
most blessed thing that one human being can 
do for another. They show us to ourselves, 
they show us what we really are, what we have 
been, may be, can be, shall be. 



THE affections are a clothing and a home 
for the heart. God's method is to give 
us always better and higher affections, and 



August 10. 




August zx. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 209 



to make the lower a step upward to the 
higher. " He who loves not his brother 
whom he hath seen, how shall he love God 
whom he hath not seen ? " Human love leads 
up to divine love. It is a Jacob's ladder, lead- 
ing up to heaven. Everything which draws 
man out of himself does him good. The 
smallest act of sympathy helps us. To say a 
kind word does him good who receives it and 
him who gives it. I see two little girls walk- 
ing hand in hand. They are playmates. 
They play together. They quarrel some- 
times ; but they are little friends. That is 
the first round of the ladder of love, the high- 
est step of which is the divine piety of Jesus 
toward his heavenly Father. 



August 12. 

I SEE two young men, fellow-students, seek- 
ers of the truth together. They struggle 
through the same doubts. They have the 
same bitter experience of evil. They may 
commit mistakes together ; but amid all 
errors and wanderings there is this golden 
thread of a generous unselfish friendship for 
each other. That is good. Let them never 
be unclothed from that love, but clothed upon 
with a higher one. 

Much of earthly affection is, no doubt, 
poor, weak, unworthy. It is idol worship : it 
is blind and foolish, weak and changeable. 
But, such as it is, it is always better than 
nothing. Do not destroy it. Fulfil it. 



2IO 



MESSAGES OF 



August 13. 



1 WOULD be very tender of any idolatry. I 
often find people adoring very enthusias- 
tically books or artists or people who to me 
seem poor and empty. But I am very care- 
ful not rudely to criticise their faith. They 
think some poetaster to be a great poet. Be 
it so. I will not say a word against it. 
They are groping after pearls. They think 
a man a great orator, and burn with enthu- 
siasm for him; while to me he appears only 
a rhetorician, a man of words. They admire 
a preacher who to me seems talking ver- 
biage and commonplaces. Well, who knows 
what real religion may come to them through 
this channel ? We have this treasure in 
earthen vessels. I will not be an iconoclast, 
except when absolutely necessary. If truth 
requires me to blow a jarring and disso- 
nant blast, I will do it, but not otherwise. 
Idolatry, in the divine order, may be the first 
step to true religion. Let it not be un- 
clothed, but clothed upon. 



HESE may, indeed, be only tents to live 



I in till we reach the promised land ; but 
we know that, when these are struck and 
folded, we have a building of God waiting 
us beyond the veil of time. God, who pro- 
vides the tent for us here, will provide the 
house there. He who gives us in this life the 



August 14. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



211 



wonders and beauties of nature, the lessons 
of truth, the opportunities for action and en- 
deavor, the helps of friendship, the charm of 
love, the nobleness of life and the pathos of 
death, will provide for us better things be- 
yond, " which eye has not seen, nor ear 
heard." 

August 15. 

WHEN God gives us love, he gives it for- 
ever. Superficial sympathies, based 
on accident, on proximity, or common inter- 
ests of the hour are fugitive, but the love 
which sees what is best in us, and cares for 
that, is something which cannot pass away. 
For this is like God's love. He is the God 
of the living, and loves the living part, the 
immortal part, of our nature. And so this 
human love attaches itself to the deepest, 
noblest, and best thing in us, and often dis- 
covers better things in us than we know our- 
selves, and so helps us most of all. 

If we love that which is best in each other, 
not the fugitive though seducing charm, but 
the truth and sincerity and earnest feeling in 
each other's souls, our love to each other 
helps, and does not hinder. If we vitalize 
and encourage it by conscience and faith, if 
we help each other by it nearer to truth, duty, 
and God, then our love for each other be- 
comes immortal. This love defies accident, 
absence, change. 



212 



MESSAGES OF 



August 16. 



HEREFORE, O human heart, trust and 



1 hope and look forward, and do not 
doubt nor fear, but go from truth to truth, 
from love to higher love. We do not wish to 
be unclothed of this world's affections and 
interests, but clothed upon with higher. 
This life is not the end, but the beginning. 
This poor body of ours, poor, but yet wonder- 
ful in its mysterious faculties, is the germ of a 
higher body. The friend who has left us, the 
dear child, sister, brother, father, mother, we 
shall meet again. Yet that heavenly love 
shall be as tender and as near as in this 
world, — a home for our heart as it was below. 



SO God educates us for himself, teaches us 
how to love him by teaching us first 
how to love our brother. All true love edu- 
cates us for heaven. The love of nature is a 
nascent piety. The delight in God's sky and 
land, his ocean and mountains, his stars and 
flowers, his sunrises and sunsets, educates us 
to love him, the Giver of all. He sends us 
little children to teach our hearts tenderness. 
He takes them up to himself, and our ten- 
derness goes up to heaven. The love for 
heaven, for books, for children, for friends, 
leads us toward God. Every generous effort 
to do right, every noble struggle against evil, 
every warm throb of love for what is good, 




August 17. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 213 

true, fair, every patriotic and courageous act 
of devotion to our country, is preparing us for 
heaven. 



HERE is but one thing which can fill the 



1 soul full, so as to drive out all evil 
thoughts and passions, and to keep them 
from returning with others worse than them- 
selves. It is love, — love to God, looking up 
to him in daily submission, penitence, and 
prayer : love to man, animating to generous 
labors and constant sacrifices, to thoughtful- 
ness and interest for all around us. When a 
heart is thus full of love, it is safe. No evil 
thought can enter it. No gloomy feelings of 
doubt, despair, and life-weariness can con- 
quer its habitual courage and peacefulness. 
Love is what we need, which suffers long 
and is kind, is not easily provoked, thinks no 
evil, bears all things, believes all things, 
hopes all things, and endures all things. 
This never fails. Knowledge cannot always 
support us. There are hours in which the 
richest and keenest intellect is clouded, and 
the throne of thought is shaken. But, when 
the whole head is sick, and the whole heart 
faint, love, faith, and hope continue to possess 
the soul, and give it light in its darkness, and 
serenity amid the stormy hours of trial. Per- 
secuted, we are not forsaken ; cast down, we 
are not destroyed. 



August 18. 




214 



MESSAGES OF 



August 19. 

THE bitter controversialists are popular in 
their time ; for men are fond of fighting, 
and always admire great warriors, whether 
their weapon be sword, pen, or tongue. But 
this kind of controversy is time and thought 
thrown away. To convert a man from his 
opinions, you must sympathize with him, and, 
by sympathy, understand what he means, see 
the truth in his error, lead him, by the truth 
he already holds, toward some higher truth 
or some different truth which he has not yet 
reached. 



Do not despise the sceptic, but, if you have 
any faith, help him to it. Sympathize with 
him, for some of his disease is in us all. We 
are all obliged to pray, " Lord, I believe : 
help thou mine unbelief ! " 

August 20. 

AS some manuscripts have been destroyed 
by an excess of acid in the ink with 
which they were written, so the acrid, bitter 
spirit of some great writers has corroded and 
destroyed their works. Luther's books — full 
of religious life, glowing with genius, among 
the most vital writings the world has known — 
are mostly unread and unreadable, with the 
exception of that little genial volume, " The 
Table-talk, " in which, among his friends, he 
shows his happy, kindly nature and forgets to 
scold. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 215 

So does time bring about its revenges. 
The loud, stormy voices, which filled past 
centuries with clamor and strife, are silent. 
These great books have sunk to the bottom 
of the stream, and disappeared. But words 
of piety, of simple faith and truth, spoken low, 
out of loving hearts, find an echo to-day all 
over the world. The book on the " Imitation 
of Christ " — which made so little noise at 
first that we are not sure whether its author 
was Gerson or Thomas a Kempis — continues 
to be printed every year, and is read every 
day by thousands. 



HE conservatives in our community are a 



1 well-disposed set of men, meaning to 
be just, but, instead of making themselves 
acquainted with the spirit and motives of re- 
formers, they avoid them, and refuse to asso- 
ciate with them. Instead of noticing the 
proposition, they impute a bad motive to the 
proposer. They say that the man is a dema- 
gogue ; that he seeks notoriety ; that he wants 
office, he wants money. Many others are 
led by their example into a like unreasoning 
scorn and invective. 

But, if conservatives understand the art of 
scolding, reformers understand it likewise. 
This habit has grown to be one of the chief 
obstacles in the way of reform. A man who 
is not a reformer goes into some reform meet- 
ing, wishing to hear a calm, strong statement 
of the evils under consideration, the steps to 



August 21. 




2l6 



MESSAGES OF 



be taken, practical measures to be discussed, 
and the duties of friends of the cause. In- 
stead of this, he often hears ridicule and sar- 
casm against the churches, and sharp witti- 
cisms against every person of influence who 
is supposed not to sympathize with the re- 
former. He sees neither justice nor wisdom 
in this torrent of invective, and he is repelled 
by it. Meantime this is what is most liked 
and applauded by the reformers themselves. 
The man who says the sharpest thing is the 
favorite orator. And, as each class of re- 
formers talk only with each other, this habit 
increases all the time; and so you have, in- 
stead of a great league made up of all the 
friends of truth, a little coterie who spend 
their time in scolding, and a great public 
which goes on its way indifferent to the whole 
subject. 



HE root of the difficulty is the same in all 



1 these cases. Indignation against wrong 
is not joined with sympathy for the wrong- 
doer. Those who are opposed to each other 
in opinion keep apart. They know nothing 
of each other's motives, and hence do injus- 
tice to each other. Any amount of intelli- 
gence will not save a man from this ignorance 
of his opponent's motives if he keeps away 
from him. Meantime the simplest person 
who hears both sides, and talks with both 
parties, has a much deeper and wider view of 
the subject than either. The eloquent leaders, 



AugUSt 22. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 2IJ 

with all their powers of oratory, resource of 
wit, and trained faculty of speech, have often 
less real insight of their subject than the un- 
pretending but candid seeker for truth, who 
refuses to be a partisan, does not abuse his 
opponents, and can join charity toward the 
evil-doer with indignation against the wrong. 



August 23. 

THE first evil of scolding is that it does no 
good, and is, therefore, a waste of time 
and strength ; the second evil is that it does 
harm by irritating the conscience ; the third, 
that it does harm by hardening the conscience. 

In order that the truth shall do any good, it 
must be spoken in reason and love. It is 
only reason and love which can make a man 
permanently better. Scolding and whipping 
may prevent the outward manifestation of 
evil, but cannot reach the source. 

The conscience, like the nerves, ought to 
be sensitive, but ought not to be irritable. 
The injury done to the moral character by a 
wrong action is often best cured by perfect 
rest. It is like a wound, which heals best by 
what doctors call the first intention. Before 
the sinner has repented, scolding hardens 
him, and drives him farther off : after he has 
repented, it irritates him, makes him unhappy, 
weakens his courage, and takes away that 
peace without which there can be no energy 
or progress. Where the general purpose is to 
do right, people need encouragement more 



2l8 



MESSAGES OF 



than censure. Aid them by pointing out 
what is to be done, encourage them by hope- 
ful words, but be careful how you rudely 
touch the half-healed wound. 

August 24. 

OH, the sweetness of sweet words ! Oh, 
the beauty of truth spoken in love ! 
Happy the family where rising irritation is 
always calmed by the soft, tender voice, 
which comes like balm to the wounded spirit ! 
Happy the church where the minister is not 
so much a son of thunder as a son of consola- 
tion, whose words attract souls, allure hearts 
to God, and who does not drive, but draw 
men by the powerful magnetism of his own 
convictions, conduct, and life ! Happy the 
community where a genial spirit flows through 
all classes, sects, and parties, where differ- 
ence is not discord, and fraternity unites 
hands and hearts in mutual help ! 

Happy the soul which loves, and blesses 
with its prayer of love. 

August 25. 

WHEN the storms of passion and the frosts 
of selfishness close all communication 
between our heart and that of our brother 
man, we may come again into communion 
with him through the infinite ocean of divine 
love. " If God so loves us, we ought also to 
love one another." If God forgives our sins, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 219 



we can forgive our brother's sins. Before the 
immensity of that heavenly forgiveness all 
earthly hostilities fade away and disappear. 
To forgive our enemy is to feel toward him as 
we believe that God feels toward us. 

And sometimes, when we are able to for- 
give others, we feel for the first time that God 
can forgive us. The true sacrament through 
which God's love enters our heart is not any 
outward ceremony, but an act of generous 
and full forgiveness to those who have done 
us wrong. When we forgive our enemies, we 
put ourselves in an attitude of soul by which 
the forgiveness of God comes to us. When 
we are hard and unforgiving to others, we 
shut up our own hearts against God's love. 
There is nothing arbitrary in the saying of 
Jesus, " If you forgive others, God will for- 
give you : if you do not forgive others, God will 
not forgive you." It is the simple working of 
a natural law. The same act which closes 
our heart against man closes it against God : 
the same act which opens our heart to those 
whom we dislike, whom we condemn, whom 
we believe our enemies, whom we look on as 
having done us wrong, opens our heart also 
to God. But we cannot really forgive another 
until we love him. We can say we forgive 
him, we can wish him all happiness ; but 
while we remain inwardly alienated, having 
no real communion with him, we do not for- 
give him. But Jesus says, " Love your ene- 
mies " ; and anything less than that is not 
enough. Nothing but genuine love will take 
the root of bitterness out of our heart. 



220 



MESSAGES OF 



The work of Christ in the world is to over- 
come evil with good, hatred with love, war 
with peace, error with truth. To be a Chris- 
tian is to be a fellow-worker with Christ in 
this spirit and method. Therefore, we must 
lay aside bitterness and wrath and evil-speak- 
ing and malice, and be kind to one another, 
forgiving one another, even as God, in Christ, 
has forgiven us. 

August 26. 

I THINK that we believe in God when 
we believe in that which is divine in all 
things, when we see in men something di- 
vine and noble in the midst of all that is evil, 
when we see in childhood something divine, 
and revere the innocence yet unstained by 
the world. So, too, we believe in God when 
we love our friends, not because they are of 
use to us, not because our tastes and theirs 
happen to agree just now, but because we 
see and admire in them some innate beauty 
which God gives to each soul when he makes 
it; some connate and inborn charm of spon- 
taneous sweetness, or courage, or honor, or 
aspiration, or reverence, or humility, or con- 
science, which God gave to it in his counsel 
before the foundation of the world. And 
we see God when we love all his creatures, 
whether they are sympathetic with us or an- 
tipathetic, when we overlook their faults and 
pardon their offences, and care for their souls, 
as God and Christ care for their souls. This 
is divine love, true love, which sees God, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



221 



which whosoever has dwells in God and God 
in him. He may have many faults, vices, 
follies, sins. But this generosity in his heart 
is the redeeming element. This is Christ born 
within him, the hope of glory. This gives him 
a solid inward peace and satisfaction, and 
makes him assured and confident before 
God. 

August 27. 

SOME men who would like to be of use in 
the world fail in their endeavor because 
they finish nothing. Their good actions are 
like buildings begun on a grand scale, but 
where the funds have given out before they 
were completed. Some men do enough to 
satisfy their consciences, and then stop, leav- 
ing their good works unfinished. They have 
had the trouble of attempting to do good, and 
none of the satisfaction of accomplishment. 
How many of these unfinished good works we 
begin ! We work a little while for different 
objects, take a class in the Sunday-school 
or engage in a hospital or some charity, and 
then stop and say, " Now I have done my 
part: let some one else do the rest." But 
Christianity counts nothing finished while any 
thing remains to be done. The Samaritan 
might have bound up the wounds, and then 
said, " I have done my duty : let some one 
else take the man to the inn." But his ob- 
ject was not to do his duty, but to save the 
man. That is the difference between con- 
science and love. 



222 



MESSAGES OF 



August 28. 

IF our goodness consists not in doing what 
strict justice requires, but a great deal 
more, how far beyond any mere justice must 
the divine love go ! If the charm in men and 
women which makes us love them is in this 
superfluity of good will, this giving all they 
have, and doing all they can, how can we 
love God unless we see the same element in 
him ? We are the poor traveller, wounded 
by our sins, left half dead in our helplessness 
and loneliness, with no power to do anything 
for ourselves. God is not like the priest and 
the Levite. He does not come and look on 
us, and then pass by. He does not say, " Do 
this, do that, or perish forever." He knows 
we can do nothing till he helps us to do it ; 
and therefore, like the good Samaritan, he 
comes to us. He does not wait till we are 
able to come to him. He comes to every 
one of us, and pours some oil and wine into 
our wounds. Sometimes the oil and wine con- 
sist in human sympathy which God sends 
to us in our sorrow ; human love, which he 
sends to us in our loneliness. Sometimes it 
is an opportunity of doing good to some one 
else which relieves our heart of its own gloom. 
God's spirit is like the wind, which comes 
and goes in a thousand ways. It comes to 
the heart, to awaken its better purposes and 
feelings, and to make all things new there. 

u Sometimes a light surprises 
The Christian while he sings," 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 223 



and sometimes as bright and sweet a light sur- 
prises the sinner in his tears. Sometimes it 
is the aspect of nature, the heavenly peace of 
a summer's day, the innocent face and voice 
of a little child in his play, the beauty still 
more divine on the face of our dead friend. 
God can speak to the heart by anything, — by 
a weed, a grain of sand, a dream. He " who 
rebuked a prophet by the voice of an ass, 
and warned his apostle by the crowing of a 
barn-door fowl," can make the meanest thing 
the channel of his love. 



August 29. 

"DY this shall all men know that ye are 
D my disciples, if ye love one another. ,, 
Though the silent, unseen, but steady coming 
of Christ has put an end to many cruelties, 
does not the ministry of the letter still neu- 
tralize the spirit of love in Christian denomi- 
nations ? What but this ministry of the letter 
prevents to-day the union for which Jesus 
prayed, and which, when it comes, will con- 
vert the world to him ? One great denomina- 
tion stands apart from the rest, clinging to its 
literal view of baptism as immersion. An- 
other keeps aloof, calling itself "the Church," 
because of its faith in the letter about 
bishops. Others refuse to allow pious men 
to go as missionaries to the heathen, or to 
be pastors and teachers, because they cherish 
a hope that the eternal Father may be more 
merciful to his children than Calvin allows, 



224 



MESSAGES OF 



or than the letter of a New Testament text 
seems to assert. And thus this trust in the 
letter opposes the spirit of Christ's last great 
prayer that ah his disciples might be one, — 
"As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, 
that all may be one in us, that the world 
may believe that thou hast sent me." O ye 
churches which claim to be followers of 
Jesus, multiply your missionaries to the 
heathen by tens of thousands, you will never 
convert the world to your Master till you be- 
come one with each other in his spirit of 
love ! 



HEN we have a willing mind, every- 



V V thing good and beautiful and true con- 
spires to help us. All nature then becomes 
pervaded with a diviner beauty, and we see 
God everywhere present in the advancing or 
receding year. He smiles upon us in the 
sunrise or sunset : he seems to hold us in 
his embracing arms in the long summer days. 
Our life then grows more full of God. All its 
events have a providential meaning. None 
arrive by blind chance or stern necessity. 
Our friends come to us from God : when they 
leave us, they go to him. Thus, having noth- 
ing, we possess all things. In one sense, 
nothing is ours : in another, all things are 
ours. Of ourselves and by ourselves we are 
nothing, but in God we have all things. For 
all things are tending inevitably toward that 
great consummation of being which we desire. 



August 30. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 225 



All things are working together for good 
while we love God. 

Grant to us, 0 Father, thus to give all we 
are and have to thee, and thus to receive all 
things from thy love ! Warm our cold hearts 
with .the fire from heaven ! Lighten our 
darkness with the knowledge of the great 
realities of being ! Teach us to pray ! Lead 
us into the fulness of thy peace, and into the 
eternal rest which remains for thy children ! 



August 31. 

IT is remarkable that Paul, the theologian 
par excellence, should be the first to de- 
clare that all systems are transient. It is 
he who says that intellectual convictions, all 
kinds of knowledge, are to disappear, all 
creeds and all beliefs come to an end ; 
" whether there be knowledge, it shall vanish 
away." And it is not John, the mystic, — the 
one who preaches love, love, love, — who 
chants that magnificent hymn to love, but 
Paul, the theologian. He it was who, hav- 
ing thought so much and studied so much 
and said words of wisdom which will never 
die while the world lasts, laid all down at the 
feet of love, and said, " Love never faileth." 



September. 



TRUTH. 



September i. 

RELIGION and science are like two 
neighbors, living side by side in mut- 
ual friendliness and helpfulness. Science 
helps religion, enlarges its views, brings it 
down from speculation to reality, teaches it 
to verify its doctrines by experience. Relig- 
ion awakens the soul to a sense of responsi- 
bility, rouses the thirst for knowledge, gives 
impulse to progress, and so animates science 
with a higher life. It is sometimes thought 
that these two neighbors are on bad terms 
with each other; and so we read about the 
" conflict " between science and religion. 
There is no such conflict, and cannot be ; for 
one kind of truth cannot be at war with an- 
other. Science means truth as seen in nat- 
ure : religion means truth as seen in the 
human soul and the human life. 



September 2. 

THE love of truth for its own sake, which 
is the glory of science, does not come 
from any materialistic view of the universe. 



23° 



MESSAGES OF 



It is born out of faith in the infinite. It 
comes when we see in all truth a revelation 
of God. It was proclaimed by the apostle 
when he said, " God is light ; and in him is 
no darkness at all." The old Theosophic 
doctrine that God is an abyss of darkness, 
and the modern Agnostic doctrine that 
nothing can be known of God except his ex- 
istence, are powerless to produce the enthusi- 
astic love of truth for its own sake which is 
essential to the progress of discovery. It is 
the sight of something divine in beauty which 
makes the true artist, and it is the sight of 
something divine in truth which makes the 
true man of science. And this, again, comes 
from faith in the infinite, the unseen, the 
eternal, as the source and foundation of the 
finite, the seen, and the temporal. 



HE Reformation of Luther was a revival 



1 of truth, — a call on all men to think, 
to look, to form opinions, to stand by their 
own private judgments. That trumpet-call 
roused the slumbering intellect of mankind. 
Then science arose, then art, then litera- 
ture ; then came various reforms ; then were 
born new hopes for human progress, new 
schemes for political emancipation, for public 
education, for voluntary and independent 
churches, universal suffrage, government of 
the people, by the people, and for the people. 
The leaders of this great intellectual move- 



September 3. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 231 



ment were men absorbed in ideas, who were 
ready to sacrifice their own happiness, that 
of their families, that of all other men, for 
the sake of a doctrine or opinion. But they 
salted the earth. 



September 4. 

FOR all thy gifts we praise thee, Lord, 
With lifted song and bended knee ; 
But now our thanks are chiefly poured 
For those who taught us to be free. 

For when the soul lay bound below 
A heavy yoke of forms and creeds, 

And none thy word of truth could know, 
O'ergrown with tares and choked with 
weeds, 

Thy strength, O Lord, in that dark night 
By mouth of babes thou didst ordain ; 

And thy free truth went forth with might, 
Not empty to return again. 

The monarch's sword, the prelate's pride, 
The church's curse, the empire's ban, 

By one poor monk were all defied, 
Who never feared the face of man. 

" Half-battles " were the words he said, 
Each born of prayer, baptized in tears ; 

And, routed by them, backward fled 
The errors of a thousand years. 



232 



MESSAGES OF 



September 5. 

PEOPLE who are in earnest are apt to be 
a little one-sided, narrow, and fanatical. 
But the Lord uses such agents to move the 
world. Do not oppose them, but endeavor 
to moderate them, and, like Paul, to show, if 
you can, a more excellent way. 

September 6. 

LET negation be for the sake of subsequent 
affirmation. Do not let denying end in 
denial, but always pass on to something posi- 
tive. 



Treat reforms frankly and kindly in the 
pulpit as you would in the parlor. Do not be 
savage to show your independence. Regard 
those who differ from you as friends, not as 
opponents to be refuted and put down. 



September 7. 

LET us remember that the same law which 
preserves truth when once attained 
makes the difficulty in its first reception. 
Reformers are apt to be bitter against conser- 
vatives, and call them bigots because they re- 
sist so obstinately the new light. But the 
same inertia which makes it hard to move 
the steel door keeps it in motion after it has 
once begun to move. If it were easy to re- 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



233 



ceive a new truth, it would be easy to lose it 
again. This is a lesson which reformers are 
slow to learn ; but they need it, in order to be 
patient and just to their opponents and can- 
did in their judgments. We must be willing 
to grant that the same love of truth which 
moves the reformer is the motive which re- 
fuses to yield easily or suddenly to his argu- 
ments. It is best that it should be so. 



September 8. 

CHARITY does not mean indifference to 
truth and error. A man is not chari- 
table who is indifferent : he can only be char- 
itable to the other side when he has a side of 
his own. If I do not care about the question 
at issue, I cannot be charitable to my oppo- 
nent, because I have no opponent. But when 
a man is in earnest, when he believes strongly 
his own opinion, when he is ready to labor for 
it and make sacrifices for it, then only he can 
be truly charitable ; then it requires some 
effort, and shows some Christian spirit, to be 
able to enter into the mind of an opponent, 
make allowances for his errors, and admit his 
truth, and, while continuing to oppose his 
doctrine, to be willing to love and help the 
man. 

In the great religious questions which di- 
vide the world there is an essential truth on 
one side or the other. We ought not to be 
neutral. We ought to select our flag, and to 
stand by it. It is not necessary to be secta- 



234 



MESSAGES OF 



rian because we like one side better than the 
other. It is not necessary to be bigoted be- 
cause we have a distinct and fixed opinion. 
Make up your mind, and then stand ready to 
be convinced, if you are wrong. Bacon says, 
" In this great theatre of life it is permitted to 
God and the angels to be spectators, but all 
men must be actors." 

People defend their indifference by saying, 
" Truth is mighty, and will prevail." Yes, it 
is mighty ; it will prevail. But how soon it 
shall prevail depends on men. If men allow 
themselves to be indifferent to the truth, if 
they do not care much one way or the other 
for this or that opinion, if they will not in- 
quire, then no doubt truth will prevail, but it 
will be after error has reigned for centuries, 
and has finally fallen, not by their efforts, but 
by its own inward tendency to decay and cor- 
ruption. 

September 9. 

PAUL says, "If there be knowledge, it shall 
pass away." Knowledge in its outward 
form passes away, but truth remains. The 
outward fact is forgotten, but the soul within 
the fact lasts. Beliefs change : truth remains. 

In the history of opinion we find everything 
changing. All is flux. The doctrines ortho- 
dox to-day were unknown to the early cen- 
turies. Yet below all this changing tide of 
opinion there remains something permanent. 
The theory goes : the fact remains. Human 
creeds and doctrines pass away : the deep 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE.. 235 



human experience of the mind brought face 
to face with truth remains. Belief passes : 
truth remains. 

September 10. 

TRUTH is permanent : it can never pass 
away. The heart and mind of man are 
so made that they cling with passionate love 
to all realized truth, and will hold it though 
mixed with ever so much error. Religious 
people cling to doctrines a thousand times 
over refuted, not because they love falsehood, 
but because they love the truth with which 
that error is mixed. No mere logician can 
make them let go of the doctrine by any argu- 
ment or ridicule. They will not relinquish it 
till one comes who can see the truth in their 
error, and give them that truth in a purer 
form. Christ took up into the gospel all that 
was true in heathenism and Judaism ; and so 
Paganism fell, and the Jewish church became 
the soil of Christianity. 

September 11. 

MAN is made for progress ; but there are 
two kinds of progress. One kind con- 
sists in going forward from one thing to an- 
other, from one knowledge to another knowl- 
edge, dropping the past behind us in order 
to attain the future. This is being " eternal 
seekers, with no past behind us." But an- 
other and higher kind is that which gathers 



236 



MESSAGES OF 



up the past into the present, absorbs history 
into life, makes old experiences " consolidate 
in mind and frame." That is the only prog- 
ress which endures : the other falls a victim 
to reaction. Reaction in life and history is 
going back to pick up something we have 
neglected. 



HE intellect makes progress either by 



1 contending against error, being con- 
verted from one view to the opposite, or by 
calmly growing up from truth into larger 
truth, from the insight of to-day into the 
deeper insight of to-morrow, enlarging past 
knowledge, not losing it. Society makes 
progress either by revolutions or reforms. 
The surest progress is always of the latter 
sort: the best reform is not that which de- 
stroys and annuls the past, but that which 
fulfils it. Science to-day has commonly ac- 
cepted the idea of change by development 
for that of change by crisis. 



RUTH is absolute, real, eternal ; but our 



1 knowledge of it is incomplete and par- 
tial. Every intellectual statement is an ap- 
proximation, every verbal proposition an at- 
tempt. There is such a thing as truth, and 
we can see it ; but, when we come to put what 
we see into words, error necessarily comes 



September 12. 




September 13. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



237 



in But the most erroneous creed may 

contain some Christian truth which is want- 
ing in the most orthodox ; and all are des- 
tined to be superseded in that day when we 
shall see Christ face to face. 



Every kind of truth is a word which comes 
from God, to make us more alive. We live 
by feeding on new truth. The mind needs to 
be nourished by new thoughts. 



September 14. 

WHEN we find two opposite and extreme 
views, each advocated by earnest, in- 
telligent men, honest in their convictions and 
bent on converting the whole world to their 
own faith, where, probably, does the truth lie ? 

The old answer was, " The truth lies some- 
where between these extremes." 

But half-views are feeble views. At each 
extreme there is an idea, a principle, and 
therefore strong conviction. In the middle 
there is apt to be only confusion of thought 
and weakness of purpose. A better philoso- 
phy of the human mind has taught us that 
truth is not in the middle, but on both sides; 
that one extreme embodies one truth, and the 
other its antagonistic truth. On either side 
is conviction; in the middle, hesitation and 
lukewarmness. 



2 3 8 



MESSAGES OF 



September 15. 

ONE source of scepticism is in the false 
idea that we are passive in our belief. 
It is not so. When God shows us a truth, it 
is our duty to cling to it. A man is disloyal 
if, having seen a truth, he lets it go through 
indifference ; if curiosity is stronger in him 
than conviction; if he loves novelty more 
than reality. 

September 16. 

WHEN we have seen a thing to be right 
and true and good, we ought to cling 
to it. That truth which in our calm and 
sober hours we have accepted, we ought not 
to let go because, in hours of trial and 
darkness, we cannot see it. Cling to it still, 
and you will see it again by and by. There 
is such a thing as loyalty to truth, which is 
noble. It is good to stand by the flag in the 
storm of battle, and when all around seems 
defeat and disaster. It is good to trust in 
God, in goodness, in eternal right, in the tri- 
umph of truth over evil, when we do not see 
how or understand why. 



September 17. 

HAVING done all, stand." 
Man was made, not only to see, to do, 
to make progress, but also to stand. Until 
he has learned to stand, he has not learned 
the whole lesson of life. Amid all change, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



239 



we desire something permanent ; amid all va- 
riety, something stable ; amid all progress, 
some central unity of life, — something which 
roots itself as we advance, which is loyal to 
the old while open to the new. 

Hence the importance of being able to 
stand. It is important, first, in order to see 
the truth ; second, it is important, in order 
to retain what we have seen. 



September 18. 

STABILITY in man is loyalty. It is not 
merely a passive and indolent conserva- 
tion : it is an active adherence to certain con- 
victions, duties, and affections. Even the tree 
has a live hold of the earth. Its roots are as 
living as its branches. It is not held to the 
ground, passively, by the law of gravitation, 
but clings to it, actively, by the law of life. 
Much more is man's stability an active and 
not a passive virtue. To keep to what is old, 
merely from an indolent reluctance to change, 
is less meritorious than the stability of a tree ; 
but to cling to the past from loyalty, from 
conscience, — this is noble. We must stand 
actively, not passively. 

September 19. 

IT is the destiny of man to make progress 
in truth, to forget things behind, and 
reach out to things before. But there must 
be something solid beneath his feet, else he 



240 



MESSAGES OF 



cannot walk. It is not progress to throw 
away all I know to-day, in order to learn 
something else to-morrow. To advance in 
knowledge is not to forget the past, but to 
take it with us. We put away childish 
things, we leave the form of truth behind us ; 
but we must not leave the substance of truth. 
In all mental progress there are some great 
convictions. 



There are some convictions which only 
deepen and strengthen, while all else changes. 



RUTH is such a sacred thing, so holy, so 



i venerable, that we must not trifle with 
it. In public speech and in private conversa- 
tion, some persons talk for effect, regardless 
of accuracy. They say what will produce an 
impression, assert extraordinary facts, aim at 
excitement, and at last lie unconsciously and 
automatically. They are called liars, but it 
is a disease, not a wilful purpose. They do 
not know, at the time, that they are saying 
what is not true. Such is the evil which re- 
sults from talking merely for effect, merely to 
produce an impression. 



IF hearing truth is our food, speaking it is 
our exercise. We need exercise as well 
as food, in order to grow ; and, as a matter of 



" Truths that wake 
To perish never." 



September 20. 




September 21. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 241 

fact, we see that only those really grow up 
into a manly stature who have the courage 
and loyalty which make them speak the truth 
which they have seen. This is the daily gym- 
nastic exercise of the Christian, — to utter 
faithfully, by action and word, his convic- 
tions in the presence of those who do not 
share them ; to testify to the truth, whether 
men will hear or forbear; to be a burning 
and a shining light in the world ; and yet to 
do all this, not ostentatiously, but modestly, 
not sharply, but kindly, not in severity, but 
in love. If the spirit of Christ dwells in us, 
a spirit of truth and love, we can do it. We 
see those who are faithful without giving of- 
fence; who can say truth which is like a 
sharp sword, and yet say it so lovingly and 
gently that no one can be displeased. Such 
people are the salt of the earth, and while 
they keep it from decay, while they preserve 
society pure and public opinion sound, they 
grow up themselves in all things into Christ. 
They become more Christ-like every day, 
more divine and more human, more near to 
God and to us. They fill us with their peace, 
joy, and trust. 

September 22. 

JESUS said, The hour cometh when all 
that are in their graves shall hear the 
voice of the Son of man, and come forth, to 
the resurrection of life or the resurrection of 
judgment. Come out of their graves, — the 
graves of ignorance, error, sin, selfishness, 
and falsehood; out of the graves of worldli- 



242 



MESSAGES OF 



ness, covetousness, cunning, and fraud, in 
which they have buried themselves. He 
saw that his Father would one day reach 
every soul, — in this world or in the next world 
or in some world would reach every soul of 
man. He saw that sooner or later the reason 
of man must see the truth, the conscience 
must feel it, the heart must love it. And so 
all in their graves shall hear his voice and 
come up, — the faithful to have their faithful- 
ness rewarded with entrance into fuller life • 
the unfaithful to be judged, to know at last 
the evil of their lives, and so take also the 
first step back toward good: therefore a 
resurrection, a rising-up, for all, — a rising-up 
of the good into love, a rising-up of the evil 
into truth. He saw that distant day as 
though already here, because he had spoken 
the immortal truth, to which sooner or later 
every knee should bow, of things in heaven 
and things on earth and things under the 
earth. And so, dying on the cross, dis- 
graced, defeated, conquered, forsaken by his 
friends, betrayed by his own disciples, leav- 
ing not one on earth who understood him, 
he could say to his Father, "I have glorified 
thee on the earth : I have finished the work 
thou gavest me to do." 

September 23. 

THE divine power of truth can only be 
realized when it is put into action. If 
we are hearers, but not doers, we deceive our- 
selves, and the truth is not in us. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 243 



People deceive themselves more often than 
they deceive others. Because a man has 
listened to pious sentiments with joy, he 
thinks himself pious. Because away from 
the rush of life, the stress of business, the 
temptations of the shop and street, the parlor 
and kitchen, he approves of righteousness, 
purity, generosity, patience, he thinks him- 
self to have those qualities. But we all ap- 
prove good in the abstract. Sentiment must 
be brought to the test of action. Hearing 
good things and talking well require to be 
supplemented by work ; for we do not know 
any truth to be truth until we have applied it. 

Be ye doers of the word, and not hearers 
only, deceiving your own selves. 



September 24. 

PERFECT truth and perfect love unite in 
complete rounded goodness. By these 
two the entire sphere of the human life is 
filled with strength and peace. All progress, 
all usefulness, all moral beauty ; proceed from 
these two fountains in the heart. 

Without truth, love becomes soft good- 
nature. Such love as this does no one any 
good : we need a strong, pure, active love to 
really help us. Weak love encourages us in 
our faults, flatters our weaknesses, hurts us 
rather than helps us. So it ceases at last to 
be love at all, and becomes more cruel than 
hatred. Better an honest blow from a truth- 
speaking enemy than weak sympathy from a 



244 



MESSAGES OF 



friend who excuses our vices and justifies our 
faults. 

September 25. 

OX the other hand, without love, truth be- 
comes so hard, so cold, so tyrannical, 
so unjust, that it ceases at last to be truth. 
How can we be just to another unless we 
have some interest in him, some sympathy 
with him ? How can we see any truth unless 
we care for it enough to look patiently, stead- 
fastly, after it ? The sharp logicians who 
measure everything by the strict scale of ab- 
stract reasoning, and are afraid of sentiment, 
lest it lead them astray, often fail to see 
truths which are revealed to babes, who have 
some love mingled with their small intelli- 
gence. 

September 26. 

JUDGE the people by their actions : 'tis a 
rule you often get. 
Judge the actions by their people : ? tis a wiser 
maxim yet. 

Have I known you, brother, sister, — have I 

looked within your heart ? 
Mingled still with yours my feelings, — taken 

of your life my part ? 
Through the warp of your conviction sent the 

shuttle of my thought 
Till the web became a Credo for us both of 

" should " and " ought " ? 
Seen in thousand ways your nature, — in all 

act and look and speech ? 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 245 



By that large induction only I your law of 

being reach. 
Now I hear of this wrong action : what is 

that to you and me ? 
Sin within you may have done it, fruit not 

native to the tree ; 
Foreign graft has come to bearing, — mistletoe 

grows on your bough. 
If I ever really knew you, then, my friend, I 

know you now. 
Either 'tis, you never did it, or you did not 

so intend, 

Or some foreign power o'ercame you — so I 

judge your action, friend. 
Let outside observers merely note appearance 

as they can : 
We, more righteous judgment passing*, test 

each action by its man. 



September 27. 

WE sometimes hear quoted with admira- 
tion the famous saying of Lessing : — 
" Not the truth which one possesses, but 
the honest striving after truth is what makes 
the worth of man. If God should hold all 
truth enclosed in his right hand, and in his 
left only the ever-active impulse to the pur- 
suit of truth, although with the condition that 
I should forever err, and should say to me, 
Choose ! I should fall with submission on his 
left hand, and say : Father, give ! Pure truth 
is for thee alone." 

But, with all respect for Lessing, is it not 



246 



MESSAGES OF 



apparent that such a choice could not pro- 
ceed from the love of truth ? Apply it to 
scientific truth. What should we think of a 
chemist, a geologist, an astronomer, who 
should prefer to be always in scientific error 
— provided he went wrong in seeking truth 
himself — rather than to possess the truths 
of science, if he had to accept them as discov- 
ered and taught by others ? We should not, 
I think, call him a strong lover of truth. 



HE day of judgment is not always post- 



i poned until the end of the world. There 
comes a last day, a winding up, in this life, to 
many men and things. Falsehood and shams 
glitter and shine for their hour, but finally 
their last day comes : then they explode and 
disappear. But it is well when they dis- 
appear that some voice, at once friendly and 
honest, shall indicate the lesson written in 
their history. Cold, hard, merciless severity 
will not do. Weak, passionate sympathy will 
not do. But truth spoken in love is what 
purifies the air, and makes the world healthy 
again. 

We seldom hear things said in this way. 
We hear indiscriminate flattery and eulogy on 
one side, indiscriminate condemnation and 
criticism on the other. But once in a while 
comes a voice like this, strong and calm, with- 
out passion, without prejudice, finding more 
good in a man than his best friends ever saw, 



September 28. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 247 

saying better things in his praise than his 
warmest admirers knew how to say, but then 
bringing him to the bar of absolute truth and 
right, and showing his essential, radical de- 
fects. As we listen, we know that it is not 
the critic who condemns : it is truth itself 
which sentences. As Jesus said, " I judge 
him not; but the word that I have spoken, 
the same shall judge him at the last day," 



September 29. 

TESUS CHRIST was the Prince of Peace, 
J because he lived to overcome evil with 
good. He was obliged to resist evil all his 
life, to contend with bigots and fanatics and 
formalists as long as the day lasted. But he 
himself lived in a profound peace in the 
midst of their raging war. His soul was 
fixed in the love of God and love of man. 
He was the greatest of all peace-makers, be- 
cause he introduced into the world that prin- 
ciple of life which is the source of peace. 
Life, abounding life, makes peace. A live 
soul is peaceful : it is the soul which is dead- 
and-alive which makes war. 

Jesus fills the soul with life. Life does not 
quarrel. It grows, it blossoms, it bears fruit. 
Life conquers death by outgrowing it. In 
the abounding summer all blades and buds 
open, advance, expand ; and the dead sticks 
and leaves and grasses are constantly over- 
grown by life, and so a peaceful activity per- 
vades all nature. 



2 4 8 



MESSAGES OF 



The peace of God, which passes all under- 
standing, because too deep, too full, too vital, 
to be measured by any scale, — this peace of 
God comes to every soul full of faith. All 
such souls are peaceful, though strong. The 
peace of God is the strongest power on earth. 
Violence and conflict are no signs of the high- 
est power : the highest power in man is calm, 
steadfast, placid. It does not come in the 
whirlwind or the fire, but in the still and se- 
rene voice of perfect trust and perfect love. 

The law of human progress involves per- 
petual warfare ; one struggle over, another 
begins ; one enemy of man conquered, an- 
other immediately appears. 

Let us all be peacemakers, but not by any 
mere "mush of concession"; not by hiding 
truth or yielding to error, but by speaking 
the truth in love, living the truth in love. 
Fight, if it is necessary, but with heavenly 
weapons. Put on the whole armor of God, 
the very panoply of Christianity. 



September 30. 

A SHALLOW naturalism and a narrow 
theology may be at war ; but a true sci- 
ence and a broad Christianity lend to each 
other a helping hand. 

What God has joined together let no man 
put asunder. God has joined together reason 
and religion, responsibility and freedom, faith 
and works, scientific progress and spiritual 
growth, the love of God and the love of man. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 249 

Narrowness judges breadth : breadth despises 
narrowness. 

Let us not judge each other, and let us not 
despise each other, but open our hearts to all 
the light and love which God shall send to 
us, knowing that we shall all stand before the 
judgment-seat of the eternal truth of God. 
When there, we shall have little cause to be 
proud, whether of our orthodox opinions or of 
our rational Christianity, but shall be grate- 
ful if God has helped us to be anything or to 
do anything for him. 



©ctober* 



THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH. 



October i. 



HE Church alone, of all human institu- 



I tions, speaks to us of immortality, of 
heaven, of an infinite Father and Friend. It 
alone supplies the deepest need of the human 
heart, and is therefore built on a rock ; and, no 
matter what storms of revolution or floods of 
change may come, it will not fall. The rock 
on which the Church stands is not a creed nor 
a miracle, not a pope nor a priest, not cere- 
mony nor habit, but the everlasting need felt 
by the earthly child for his heavenly Father, 



EVERY church of Christ has faith not 
merely in some divine power, but in 
that divine power which speaks to the world 
through Jesus of Nazareth. It has faith in 
that Father whom he revealed, who loves all 
his children, whose impartial sun shines on 
evil and good, whose vast laws are without 




October 2. 



254 



MESSAGES OF 



change or shadow of turning ; influenced by 
no caprice, no favoritism ; who takes care of 
the little sparrow in its nest as well as the 
monarch on his throne. The Church has 
faith in Jesus as the Christ; that is, the king 
who is to rule the world by his truth and 
love. It has faith that good is stronger than 
evil, and will conquer it ; that right is more 
mighty than wrong, and will overcome it ; 
that truth will at last prevail over all error, 
and the kingdom of God come, and his will 
be done on earth as it is done in heaven. 
When the apostles went forth to preach the 
gospel of good news, they proclaimed as the 
only article of faith that Jesus of Nazareth, 
conquered, crucified, dead, buried, was never- 
theless the true king of the world, and that he 
would reign until all enemies were put under 
his feet. That was the rock on which they 
built their church, — this thorough-going opti- 
mism, which could see in all temporary evil a 
universal good to come; this majestic faith 
that the Almighty is on the side of justice 
and love, and that therefore they are sure to 
conquer. 



HE Christian Church has not always kept 



1 to this faith. It has not always believed 
that good would conquer evil in this world. 
It has often postponed the day of judgment 
to a future life. This present world it has 
submissively surrendered to the devil, regard- 
ing it as permanently given over to sin. 



October 3. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 255 

There is to be, it believes, a heaven hereafter, 
but no heaven here. Men are to be saved in 
the other world, but not in this. It has, 
therefore, uttered the Lord's prayer only with 
the lips, not with the full conviction of the 
soul. It could not pray that God's kingdom 
should come and his will be done on earth as 
in heaven, so long as it had no faich that the 
kingdom would ever come or the will ever be 
done. 

But the power of Christianity from the be- 
ginning has consisted in this confidence : — 
that the love and truth of Christ are stronger 
than evil and sin. That good is stronger 
than evil, not merely hereafter, but in this 
world, is the essence of Christian faith. The 
creed of the world is just the contrary. Men 
of the world, as such, believe that goodness is 
lovely and desirable, and may be necessary to 
enable us to get to heaven when we die, but 
that it is a weak thing here. Not Jesus, but 
force and fraud are the kings of this world. 
We are all apt to be swept away by this scep- 
ticism. We are often silenced by the author- 
ity with which this worldly wisdom speaks, by 
its appeals to history and experience, forget- 
ting that the wisdom of this world is folly 
before God. And we forget, too, that the 
real lessons of history are all the other way : 
that there is nothing permanent but good- 
ness ; that the kings of this world, the Caesars 
and Napoleons, all pass away, while truth is 
immortal ; persecuted often, but never for- 
saken ; cast down repeatedly, but not de- 
stroyed. 



MESSAGES OF 



October 4. 

SUPPOSE the Christian Church should 
really believe that what it asks in its 
daily prayer is possible ; believe that the king- 
dom of God can come here, is meant to 
come here ; and that God's will can be done 
on earth as it is done in heaven. Suppose 
this should be the chief aim and effort of the 
Church, — to put an end to war, to cruelty, to 
all wrong-doing ; to make men honest, gener- 
ous, pure, truthful, loving. If the Church 
should devote its main energy, as Jesus did, 
to seek the lost, and to save them from their 
present evils ; to bind the wounds of the 
broken-hearted here ; to give sight to the 
blind, feet to the lame, comfort to the sorrow- 
ful, help to the poor; to lead those who have 
gone astray back into the right paths ; to 
make all men feel that God is in our midst 
to-day, that his infinite love is around us now, 
that Christ is with us here in this earthly life, 
that his heart is longing to save the w 7 orld 
from its present sins, — if the Church believed 
this, would not the kingdom of God come 
and his will be done ? With the whole power 
of the Church put forth in this direction, how 
soon might we not see these divine results ? 



October 5. 

AND this faith in Christ is also, by its very 
nature, faith in man. When we say 
that truth is mighty, and will prevail, we 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 257 

really mean that the human mind loves 
truth more than error, is adapted to truth 
and not to falsehood, and therefore will at 
last accept it as its master. When we say 
that good will overcome evil, we mean that 
the human heart loves goodness more than 
anything else, and will at last bow before it, 
and submit to it. Without such a faith, how 
can any man preach the gospel? How can 
any missionary go out to teach Christianity to 
the pagans and savages ? Without it we 
could not have courage to begin nor con- 
fidence to persevere. Therefore, I say that 
every true church of Christ is founded on 
this rock of faith in him as one who is to be 
the king of the world, whose heavenly teach- 
ing is to conquer evil, replace war by peace, 
selfishness by generosity, fear by hope, and 
at last fill the earth with the knowledge and 
love of God. 

This is what the Church is for, — to keep 
alive this faith in a divine presence and 
power in this world; to inspire doubting 
hearts with confidence in the omnipotence of 
goodness ; to encourage the discouraged by 
its own confident hope; by believing that 
God's kingdom is coming, to cause it to 
come ; by faith that truth is mighty, to make 
it mighty. 

October 6. 

THE churches keep alive the sense of the 
greatness of humanity. ... If I did 
not go to church for anything else, I should 



2 5 8 



MESSAGES OF 



go for this. The sermon might be stupid : 
then I should not listen to it. The prayers 
might not suit me : then I should pass them 
by. The music might grate on my ear : I 
should not try to hear it. One would stand 
before me greater than the temple ; greater 
than its liturgy, its prayers, its priests, its 
ritual, — my brother, man, bowed before my 
father, God. 



HE Church is the body of Christ. It is 



I his eyes with which he looks on the suf- 
ferings of men with tenderest pity. Through 
it he hears the cries of blind souls to-day as 
he heard the blind man crying at the gates of 
Jericho. It is his hands with which to lift 
the wounded from the ground and tend their 
wounds. 

The Church is an organization through 
which the spirit of Christ can work. If hith- 
erto it has been his voice rather than his 
hands and feet ; if it has preached him in the 
pulpit rather than gone with him to seek and 
save the lost ; if it has taught doctrines about 
him rather than carried him to a world lying 
in wickedness ; if it has called on men to 
"come to Jesus " rather than gone in the 
spirit of Jesus to find and help them where 
they are, — the time has come, we think, for a 
change. We wish to take part in the great 
and opening civilization of the new day and 
hour. We wish to have part in a Chris- 
tianity such as the world has not yet seen, — 



October 7. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 259 



a Christianity which shall fill all life with the 
sense of God's presence ; which shall cast 
both death and hell into a lake of fire, which 
shall give us a new heaven and a new earth 
wherein dwelleth righteousness. 

October 8. 

I BELIEVE with Augustine, with Luther, 
and with Fenelon, with Wesley and Swe- 
denborg, that Christianity is the life of Jesus 
himself, prolonged and unfolded on the earth. 
We are told by modern critics that we cannot 
know much about the historic Christ, there 
are so many contradictions and difficulties 
in the gospel narrative, and no harmonious 
whole. So speaks the lower criticism, ana- 
lytic, destructive, negative. But the higher 
criticism, sympathetic, synthetic, positive, cre- 
ative, ever brings the historic Christ more 
near to our understandings no less than to 
our hearts. 

October 9. 

RIGHTLY understood, Christ's coming is 
perpetual and continuous. We are not 
to stand looking up into the sky, expecting 
him, but to look into our hearts, and around 
into the world, and find him here now. Do 
not look for him to-morrow or next year. 
Let to-morrow take care ol itself. Now is the 
accepted time. Now is the day of salvation. 
Christ comes to us every day, when we are 
led to think right, feel right, do right. 



260 



MESSAGES OF 



If Christ were to come to-day to Boston in 
outward visible person, if he should come 
surrounded by angels, if he should come 
with power to raise the dead and to work 
mighty miracles, that would still be no real 
coming of Christ to those unprepared to re- 
ceive him. He would be no nearer to them 
than he is now. 

And to the humble, the upright, the honest 
seekers after truth, to those who trust to the 
infinite tenderness of God, Christ is as near 
now as he would be then. Looking at the 
outward Christ with the outward eye is not 
seeing him. We do not see him till we look 
at him inwardly, with the eye of the soul. 



HE power of Christianity seems largely to 



1 consist in this, — that it has given man- 
kind a great hope. Christ was a revelation 
of God's purpose for his children. The New 
Testament is full of hope. While it shows 
the evil of sin, it always inspires a spirit of 
courage. It tells sinners that God has 
chosen them from the foundation of the world 
to be pure and holy in Christ Jesus. It 
moves men, not by the fear of hell, but by 
the hope of heaven. Sin and evil are the 
dark background to a sunny landscape, where 
light and love shine with heavenly radiance. 
The New Testament shows us in God an infi- 
nite tenderness to every child whom he has 
made, a love which nothing can weary. It 



October io. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 261 

calls us out of darkness into a marvellous 
light, out of sin into holiness, generosity, 
purity, love. It makes us feel that we can 
do all things through Christ, who strengthens 
us. So we find in the gospel this double 
power, — truth, which shows us what we 
ought to be ; love, which shows us that we 
can be what we ought, through the power 
given us by God. 

October 11. 

LET us not stand in the doorway of Chris- 
tianity, hesitating whether to go in, be- 
cause perhaps we have not made up our 
mind about miracles, or about the supernat- 
ural, or about inspiration. Do we gain peace 
and comfort in the words of Jesus? Is he 
the best teacher we can find ? that the world 
has found? When we go to him in trouble, 
do our souls find rest ? When we are con- 
scious of sin, does he reveal to us the pardon- 
ing love of God ? Has he put that spirit in 
our heart by which we say " Our Father " ? 
Christians are not what they ought to be. 
Granted. But has Christianity helped to 
break the chains of the slave? Has it 
brought light to the ignorant? Has it been 
on the side of education and progress ? Has 
it built hospitals for the blind, the insane, the 
deaf and dumb ? If we wish to do any good 
to our fellow-men, do we not appeal to 
Christ's teachings and promises ? Then 
Christianity is what we need ; and let us 
not hesitate, but enter, and find food and 
rest and comfort. 



262 



MESSAGES OF 



October 12= 

PERHAPS you have been brought up to 
believe that the whole Bible was directly 
inspired by the Almighty, that everything 
within those lids is the Word of God. At 
last you discover that the Bible history of the 
creation contains manifest errors ; that the 
geology of the Bible does not correspond 
with the discoveries of science ; that many 
actions attributed to the patriarchs are incon- 
sistent with sound morality ; that there are 
impossible miracles asserted and irrational 
doctrines taught in this great collection of 
Hebrew literature. You therefore cease to 
accept the whole Bible as divine. That is 
your duty: you cannot help it. But, if you 
stop with that negation, you have merely lost 
a part of your old faith. One of the props 
of your life is gone. Do not stop there. 
This mere negation has not set you free. 
The letter of the Bible has ceased to be in- 
spired : learn to see more of inspiration in 
its spirit. Read it again, to learn why this 
book, containing such errors, has yet been 
the food of the soul to countless generations; 
has roused the noblest sentiments of man, 
has been a cloud by day and a pillar of fire 
by night, has been the liturgy of nations, the 
fountain of glad hymns in the hour of joy, of 
prayers in sorrow; has brought comfort to 
sad hearts, the sense of a divine presence 
and a blessed immortality to bereavement. 
When you cast aside the false inspiration of 
the letter, find the real inspiration behind the 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 263 



letter. And let the sight of those inspired 
souls, Isaiah and Moses, Samuel and Paul, — 
leaders of men, — help you to see divine in- 
spiration outside of the Bible also in other 
great manly and womanly hearts. When you 
see how God spoke to those sublime souls, 
learn to believe that he also speaks to us 
to-day. Believe that the exulting and abound- 
ing river of life which pours through the 
pages of the Bible is still rolling on to-day. 
Seeing how Moses and Elijah were inspired 
to rebuke kings and lead nations, let us be 
sure that it was by the same divine power 
that Abraham Lincoln was raised up to guide 
our own nation through its Red Sea to the 
Promised Land; that Washington was as 
truly sent as Joshua ; that Milton and Chan- 
ning drank from the same fountain of inspira- 
tion with the apostle Paul. Then we shall 
really believe that every good and perfect 
gift is from above, and comes down from the 
Father of Light. Then we shall be set free 
from the bondage of the letter, and be able 
to open our souls to the coming of the ever- 
lasting Spirit, which moves where it will, 
creating light and life in the midst of dark- 
ness and the shadow of death. 



October 13. 

THROUGH the Jewish nation God has be- 
stowed on mankind four gifts of su- 
preme importance, — the doctrine of monothe- 
ism as taught by Moses, the gospel of love 



264 



MESSAGES OF 



as taught by Jesus, the Bible, and the rest of 
the seventh day. 



The sweet day of rest has come ; the cares 
born of earth are hushed ; the stormy waves 
of business are appeased; rest falls on weary 
cattle and on the tired laborer. In nearly a 
hundred thousand assemblies in the United 
States prayer is offered to the Most High ; 
songs of praise ascend ; the Scriptures are 
read, which command honesty, truth, generos- 
ity in the name of God, which forbid, in the 
same august name, falsehood, treachery, cru- 
elty, wrong. Little children are taught good- 
ness, reverence, love. The sad hearts are in- 
vited to come to God and be comforted. 
The lonely find a home and friends. Peace 
falls from above on many a sore and strug- 
gling heart. Do you wish this to cease ? Will 
society be better if it comes to an end ? Let 
every man and woman consider this seriously, 
and act accordingly. 

October 14. 

LET us remember, however, that we come 
to church not only to receive good, but 
to do good. It is a misfortune, I think, that 
our fathers should have laid so much stress 
on the sermon. There are many to-day who 
perhaps may not need the instruction or influ- 
ence of the sermon, but who yet do need the 
influence of the common worship, of union 
with their brethren in prayer and in work, 
and who would be better and happier for 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 265 

helping in the church. They are now out- 
side of all religious organizations, outside of 
the great currents of Christian life. I know 
many young men, who have inherited from 
the past a Christian education, who now 
stand aloof from all churches, and never go 
into the house of God with the multitude 
who keep sacred time. Their reason is that 
they receive no good from the preaching. 
But would they not receive good by joining 
in common prayers and praises to the univer- 
sal Father, by joining in common benevolent 
work with their human brothers ? How 
much good would they not receive by doing 
good to others, by being in the grand current 
of Christian sympathy and Christian labor, of 
which the Church must always be the expo- 
nent ! 

October 15. 

A CITY winter means nine months, — from 
October to July. In that time what 
may a church do ? What may not this 
church do ? 

First of all, we may all of us come nearer 
to God; we may dedicate ourselves more 
fully to his service ; we may increase our 
faith, our hope, our love. This is the one 
thing needful, — the root of the whole matter. 
To try to do Christian work without a foun- 
tain of Christian life within is like drawing 
water from a well by letting down buckets 
into it. This is better than not to have the 
water. Better act by a continual struggle 



266 



MESSAGES OF 



and by hard work than not act at all. But 
when we have faith in God, in Christ, in the 
gospel, then it is like the flow of water which 
pours into a city by aqueducts from distant 
hills, sending its ever-fresh supplies by a 
power of its own into every home. Let us 
all, this winter, seek for more faith in the di- 
vine love, seek to live in it and from it : 
then we cannot help receiving good and doing 
good. 

October 16. 

OUR Master says, " It is more blessed to 
give than to receive." Let this be the 
motto of our church this winter. Let us 
come together to give, to help, to sympathize 
with others, to find out what others need ; to 
aid in improving all church activities ; to as- 
sist in our church enterprises, and in others, 
too. Let us be glad and grateful that God 
gives us this new opportunity of carrying out 
the noble and beautiful description of the 
church given by the apostle, — "The whole 
body, fitly joined together, and compacted by 
that which every joint supplieth, maketh in- 
crease of the body to the building up of itself 
in love." 

The work of a city church must be mostly 
done during the winter. This is the season 
of all activities. Let us, then, begin at once 
what we have to do. Each of the churches 
ought to do something new and something 
useful every year for God and man, — exer- 
cise a good influence, sow some good seed, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 267 

co-operate in humane enterprises. What I 
wish, most of all, to enforce on you is that 
you should meet in church, not merely as a 
matter of propriety and custom, not merely to 
receive good influence, but to take part in all 
that can be done for Christian objects. 



October 17. 

JESUS taught two great truths, — the 
fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of 
man. These vast yet familiar truths sweep 
the whole heavens and the whole earth, and 
bring into their enormous circle all senti- 
ments of piety and charity. Whatever of 
reverence on the one hand or tenderness on 
the other can ascend to God is embraced in 
the words Our Father. Whatever of human 
sympathy or active service may reach out to 
the farthest man is attracted by the words 
Our Brother. 

The religion of Jesus puts our feet in a 
broad place. Narrow minds have made it 
narrow. It has been bound to narrow 
creeds, narrow churches, narrow forms of 
piety. But Christianity, as it came from the 
lips of Jesus, and as it was proclaimed by 
the apostle Paul, is as broad and as free as 
the all-embracing heavens. It accepts law, 
divine law ; but, by accepting it and obeying 
it, it attains to perfect freedom. 

I know that many believe that there is 
more freedom outside of Christianity than 
within it. But I think they are mistaken. 



268 



MESSAGES OF 



There is more freedom inside of Christianity 
than outside of it, because Christianity 
arouses the soul, awakens the conscience, 
creates new energies, and thus gives to man a 
power and a freedom which sets his feet in a 
large place. 

October 18. 

AND now we ask, Has Jesus been out- 
grown ? In these eighteen centuries 
has he been left behind, in any one particular, 
by the advancing race of man? Is he not 
still our Leader, Chief, and Friend, the best 
Friend we have, our Brother, Teacher, and 
Master ? Without him and his religion, 
what satisfaction is there in life, what hope 
in death, what comfort in sorrow, what 
strength in our weakness, what light in our 
darkness ? 



Jesus, who is both Son of God and Son of 
Man, is the natural leader of the human race. 
On the loftiest summit which the reason can 
climb we find him. In the lowest depths of 
human sorrow and sin this great Friend is 
still by our side. As the world advances 
on the vast highway of progress, Christ will 
not become less human or less divine, but 
more so. 

October 19. 

ACCORDING to theism, every one must 
rise by personal struggle and solitary 
effort. But, according to Christianity, man 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 269 

rises by joining with this effort the readiness 
to receive and transmit the divine impulse of 
which Christ is the Mediator. Man does not 
make any less effort on this account, but 
more. By helping others, he helps himself. 
By becoming a mediator of this Christian life 
to other souls, he receives more in his own. 
The law is, " Give, and it shall be given you." 



To substitute for Christianity a theism 
based on the attributes of God or a spiritual- 
ism founded on the doctrine of a universal 
inspiration is not to go forward to a more 
advanced position, but to relapse into a lower 
one. The ampler doctrine is the truer. 
That which accepts Father, Son, and Spirit ; 
means, end, and substance ; Christ the way 
to the Father ; Christ's work the condition of 
coming to the Spirit ; the belief which does 
not destroy the past creed, but fulfils it in a 
higher form, — this is that which alone can 
permanently satisfy human wants. It is not 
by dropping Christ that we can reach God or 
live in the Holy Spirit. For through him 
we all have access by the Spirit to the 
Father. 

October 20. 

MELCHIZEDEK is another kind of 
priest different from the tribe of Levi, — 
not a priest because of being in the formal 
succession, but by being the true man and 
by having the right spirit in him. Flis priest- 



270 



MESSAGES OF 



hood came from the noble religious soul in 
him, which saw a supreme God amid the 
idolatries which surrounded him. He was 
made a priest by the power of an endless life. 
Eternity dwelt in his soul. He stood in con- 
tact with two worlds. He saw the infinite 
realities of past and future roll together in the 
great present. He saw substance below the 
form, spirit within the letter, life pervading 
matter, God moving in the world. This 
made him a true priest, a priest forever; 
for, ten centuries after, the prophetic, poetic 
spirit of David saw in him the analogies 
of the coming teacher of mankind, — priest of 
the whole race of men. As this King of 
Justice and Peace mediated between many 
tribes and made them at one, so should the 
future priest mediate among all mankind. 

This analogy, seen by David, was caught 
up in the argument of the writer to the 
Hebrews. This is his answer to their other- 
wise fatal objection. "Yes," he says, "I 
admit freely that Jesus was no priest like 
your priests, but he was of a higher and 
nobler kind. He did a priest's work far 
more nobly and truly than they can do it." 



HERE are times when forms and rules 



1 are good, and the priest after the order 
of Levi is needed. I do not mean to say that 
order in the ministry is not expedient, but 
that our great High Priest transcended these 



October 21. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 271 

limits, and took his position on a deeper and 
more universal priesthood than that of form, 
ritual, or succession. It would have been 
easy for God to have caused Jesus to be born 
from the tribe of Levi ; but Divine Providence 
chose otherwise, to teach us that the true 
priest stands on a more profound basis of 
reality than any church can give ; derives his 
ordination from a holier source ; is in the 
apostolic succession not of any limited church, 
but of all true teachers of the race since the 
world began. It seems strange that in any 
church men should prefer the ordination 
of Aaron and Levi to that of Melchizedek 
and Christ, — prefer legitimating a priest by 
studying out his genealogy, and proving that 
he stands in the right order of descent, to 
legitimating him by finding him like Melchize- 
dek, "without father or mother, without be- 
ginning of days or end of life ; made like to 
the Son of God, not after the law of a carnal 
commandment, but after the power of an end- 
less life." 

Every Christian, therefore, is a priest. 
Every one who has faith in God as his Father 
and Friend can communicate that faith to 
others. 



higher, broader, better than any other 
religion, but essentially different from every 
other in this: that its truth is so absolute and 
universal as to be fitted to become the re- 
ligion of mankind. 



October 22. 




not only deeper, 



272 



MESSAGES OF 



The only progressive religion in the world 
to-day is Christianity. It unfolds itself into 
new forms, puts forth new branches, and 
makes, every day, a new heaven and a new 
earth. 



O say that Christianity is supernatural, is 



1 to say, not too much, but too little. Nor 
is it enough to say, " Christianity is the ex- 
clusively true religion." We must go farther, 
and maintain that it is the inclusively true 
religion. 

Christianity has received into itself all the 
good of many systems, — the philosophy of 
Greece, the laws of Rome, the mysticism of 
India, the monotheism of the Jews, the war 
between good and evil taught by Zoroaster, 
the Scandinavian faith in liberty and prog- 
ress. All the prophets who have been since 
the world began, and all the civilizations of 
the past, have, like the wise men of the East, 
brought their gifts to the infant Messiah. 



IF we are in Christ, life becomes new. 
Nothing prevents life from seeming old, 
stale, flat, and weary like having an object, — 
something we are interested in, something 
we love to do. The higher and better this 
object is, the more of interest it adds to our 
life. Did you ever watch a beehive, and see 



October 23. 




October 24. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 273 



the interest these little creatures take in their 
work, sailing, full freighted, through the air, 
dropping down hastily by their front door ? 
The good God has put into the hearts of 
these little things such an ardor of work that 
their small lives have to them all the interest 
of which they are capable. 

But God has provided better things for us 
than for bees and ants and birds. An in- 
finitely deeper and richer life may be ours, 
only we have to find it for ourselves. We 
find it when we are living in the spirit of 
Christ. Any one who is doing a Christian 
work from a Christian motive finds life becom- 
ing interesting to him, and he is straitened till 
it be accomplished. Oh, there is no end to 
the joy and freshness of existence, if we 
can live with Christ in our hearts ! 

O sacred heart of Christ! worshipped by 
Catholics in their prayers ! if we could only 
understand thee aright, only feel the infinite 
longing of love with which that heart beats 
for us all, only feel how Christ comes for each 
of us to-day, how he sends help into our 
souls, how he waits, day by day, looking for us 
to come ! 

October 25. 

JESUS comes as his truth comes, as his 
love comes. He comes with his Father 
to dwell in us, and we in him. Sin is con- 
quered. The last enemy, death, is overcome. 
Christ comes to redeem us from the power of 
all evil. Then heaven cometh, and now is. 



274 



MESSAGES OF 



Then, God's will being done on earth as it is 
in heaven, heaven begins here. It is here 
already in its seeds and roots ; and we have 
the foretaste of the world to come, the first- 
fruits of a higher life, while we are yet dwell- 
ing in this. 

October 26. 

THE hour cometh, and now is, when the 
true worshippers shall worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth. The hour 
cometh when it will be seen that God is the 
best friend we have in the universe, and that 
we can trust in him always, and pour out our 
souls before him. 

These are the unchanging, unalterable facts 
of Christianity. Faith is the foundation, — 
faith in God as an infinite Friend ; faith in 
Christ as the way, the truth, and the life ; — 
faith in ourselves as the children of God, 
whom he loves, and who, therefore, must 
have something in us worth loving. And 
hope, always reaching forward, seeking, pray- 
ing, working for a kingdom of heaven to come 
below, for a kingdom of God to begin here 
and continue hereafter. And love, the bright 
consummate flower of human life, that which 
is essentially and forever divine, which makes 
us one with God and at peace in our own 
souls. Faith is the foundation on which our 
knowledge rests, hope is the motive-power 
urging us forward from good to better, and 
love the heaven within, which makes a 
heaven around us evermore. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 275 



October 27. 

WHEN Jesus said, " The hour cometh, 
and now is, when the true worshippers 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth," he alone on the surface of the earth 
knew what true worship was. Men wor- 
shipped God, as though he loved sacrifices ; 
as though he took pleasure in seeing his 
creatures torment themselves ; as though he 
were far off, and could not easily hear ; as 
though he were angry, and had to be ap- 
peased; as though he loved to be praised. 
But Jesus saw, in his heart, that diviner 
worship, the love of a child to its father and 
mother ; the trust of a weak creature in a per- 
fectly wise, good, and great Being; the con- 
fidence of a sinful creature in One all mercy 
and compassion ; the worship which does not 
need to speak, in order to be heard ; which is 
the motion of a hidden fire that trembles in 
the breast; that worship, which, when it 
shall come, will make every place a church, 
every day the Lord's day, all work devotion, 
all joy thanksgiving, all events blessings, and 
all nature and life full of God. 



October 28. 

ON the deep foundation of Christian 
experience all Christianity rests. It is 
the solid rock beneath the Church, like 
Peter's faith, which flesh and blood had not 
revealed to him, but the Father which is in 



276 



MESSAGES OF 



heaven. All belief in Christ and Christianity, 
founded on hearsay, which flesh and blood 
have revealed, is unstable. Human teaching, 
the authority of others, the belief of parents 
and friends, the outward blessings and ad- 
vantages of religion, — these are only, like John 
the Baptist, sent to prepare the way of the 
Lord. Xot till we come to God ourselves, by 
personal submission to the law of right, per- 
sonal trust in his all-sufficient love, do we 
have any real Christianity. After that, if we 
speak, we speak what we know and testify 
what we have seen. If men fall away from 
religion and become unbelievers, it is be- 
cause they have never really had any true re- 
ligious experience. For what we have once 
seen, once known, of God, Christ, duty, love, 
immortal hope, is a possession forever. 
Heaven and earth may pass away: but this 
divine word, once seen and known, shall 
never pass away. 



N this solid personal experience the 



v_y whole future of Christianity must rest. 
This is still the rock on which Christ builds 
his Church, and which will forever resist all 
that can injure or destroy. Out of this deep, 
broad, living Christian experience shall come 
that future Church of Christ which shall 
combine variety with unity, works with faith ; 
which shall be broad enough to adapt itself 
to all human diversity, deep enough to satisfy 
all human needs ; so progressive as to walk 



October 29. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 277 

abreast with all human development; so 
aspiring as to bring God's kingdom into this 
world, and make heaven upon earth. But the 
Christian experience, out of which all this 
grand future shall grow, will be nothing 
narrow, nothing formal, and not a confused 
emotion. It will be the vision of God's truth 
and God's love, the light of things eternal. 
It may come suddenly or gradually, but it 
will be always essentially the same. It will 
consist in the sight of the divine holiness, 
justice, truth, order, and law, producing 
obedience, and the sight of God's pardoning 
love, saving grace, spiritual influence to re- 
deem and bless, producing faith, hope, love. 



HE hour cometh, and now is, when 



1 Christian doctrine shall be redeemed 
from the Jewish and pagan errors which 
have clung to it, and so be brought back to 
the simplicity of Christ; when men shall no 
more be taught to be afraid of God. They 
will no more be taught that man is all corrupt 
and evil. They will be taught to see in every 
soul something good, something allied to God, 
some conscience, some heart, something of 
holy fire lingering under the ashes of vice and 
sin. The hour cometh, and now is, when 
men shall learn to respect human nature. 
The hour cometh, and now is, when they will 
look on the vicious and the criminal with pity, 
not contempt, and try to help them out of 



October 30. 




278 



MESSAGES OF 



their evil ; and when those who have been 
abandoned, and left without sympathy or 
brotherly aid, shall be sought out, and taught, 
and saved. Then the Christian Church, 
united by the holy spirit of humanity and 
brotherly love, will come together, and be at 
one, all working together in the great cause 
of human improvement. That hour cometh, 
and now is. 

The Christian Church has placed Chris- 
tianity in the worship of God, who is over all 
and in us all. It has seen God above us, — 
not God in nature around, not God in man's 
human soul. Its religion, therefore, has gone 
into worship, into churches, into Sundays. 
But the hour cometh, and now is, when Chris- 
tianity is to be seen in the street, in the shop, 
in all human life, and God to be felt as ^ all 
in all." 

October 31. 

AROUND this divinely human character, 
Son of God and Son of Man, laying 
aside their prepossessions about him, Chris- 
tians must one day unite, and be willing that 
all men shall sit at the feet of the Master, 
and hear his words. Then his sublime 
prayer will be fulfilled, "As thou, Father, art 
in me, and I in thee, that they also may be 
one in us, that the world may believe that 
thou hast sent me." Not until the Church 
is thus one can the world be converted to 
Christ. 

This unity will not be a tame monotony, 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 279 

but the consent of many tones in one vast 
harmony of purpose and work. We shall not 
be all absorbed in one organization, as the 
Church of Rome has dreamed, gaining union 
by sacrificing freedom; nor shall we remain 
divided as the Protestant Church has been, 
preserving freedom and losing union. Ac- 
cording to the image of the apostle, we shall 
be many members, but one body, one 
denomination being the eye, another the 
hand, another the foot, but all working to- 
gether to bless and save the human race. 
What evils could resist such combined action ? 
With such a united Church, how long would 
the outcast heathen in our cities be left 
uncared for ? How long would Christian 
nations continue to wage pagan wars with 
each other? How long would Materialism, 
Agnosticism, Pessimism, Atheism, the spirit- 
ual diseases of our time, resist the radiance 
of this new advent of Christ to the world? 
Theology, which will always remain the most 
interesting of studies, having Christ himself 
as its centre, will then be fed continually 
with living bread. Its scholastic character 
will disappear. It will give us, instead of 
theories about Christ, " Jesus Christ himself, 
the chief corner-stone, in whom all the build- 
ing, fitly framed together, groweth unto a holy 
temple in the Lord." Faith in him will mean 
living in his spirit, trusting his promises, feel- 
ing his sacred presence with us always. 
Christ will be more and more the friend of 
the soul, the strength of its life, the guide of 
its thought, the inspiration of all our days. 



280 FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



With this inspiration, theology will be free and 
progressive, adapting itself to all the needs of 
human life, and yet solidly based on the deep 
experience of the heart, on the life hid with 
Christ in God. 



November- 



EVERY-DAY RELIGION. 



November i. 



HERE is a strange, tender beauty at this 



1 season of the year, which we all must 
have felt. The air, during some days of the 
last week, has been singularly pure and full of 
health. No mountain air, no Italian air, could 
be sweeter or purer. The woods and hills 
have put on their autumn dress of beauty and 
pride. The declining year has robed itself in 
majesty before bidding us farewell. And I 
think: "O beautiful world, world most full 
of beauty, which God has given us, why do 
we not enjoy thee more? Why are we so 
restless and discontented and unhappy ; at 
war with ourselves, with those around us, 
even at war with Providence, when it seems 
as if we had only to open our hearts to all 
this infinite tide of God's love, and be 
happy? " 



THE phrenologists make reverence the 
religious organ. I think it one organ 
of religion, but not the only source of religion. 




November 2. 



284 



MESSAGES OF 



It leads to worship, devotion, and the 
exercise of piety. But piety and devotion 
constitute only one part of religion. Those 
who have a great deal of this lovely natural 
tendency within them enjoy prayer, enjoy 
worship, enjoy religious books, religious 
hymns, and religious meetings. The senti- 
ment of piety is sweet and holy, but religion 
is also action and thought. It rests on a 
deep conviction of the reality of God's being, 
of duty, of immortality. We must not suppose 
that one cannot be religious who has not, by 
nature, a love for worship ; for religion comes 
to us in many ways. A person to whom it is 
not natural to look up in adoration, who does 
not pray the prayer of sentiment, who has no 
tendency to natural piety, may be just as real 
a Christian. He may come to God through 
conviction and conscience. He may pray to 
God because he sees that prayer helps him, 
gives him strength to do his duty, to resist 
temptation. If you have a good deal of natu- 
ral piety, be thankful ; but, if you have it not, 
be not discouraged. There are other ways of 
finding God. 

November 3. 

WE do not want the Jewish Sabbath re- 
vived ; for that is a day of restraint and 
gloom, and it was dropped by Christianity 
in the beginning. On the other hand, we 
do not want a pagan and secular holy-day, 
sanctified by no sense of a divine presence and 
love. It should not be for mere church-going 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 285 

on the one hand, nor for mere amusement on 
the other. It should rest both the body and 
the soul, the mind and the heart. It should 
prepare us to go to our work next day in 
a better spirit, with new hope, courage, 
devotion to principle, faith in God, love to 
man. Real recreation is re-creation. It is 
what puts new life into all our faculties. 

The Lord's Day fulfils the Sabbath, taking 
all that is good of that, its seventh part of the 
week redeemed from work to rest. It fulfils 
the " Sunday," taking all that is good of the 
pagan holiday, its freedom from heavy obli- 
gations, its absence from care, its innocent 
pleasures. But it fulfils both in something 
higher. It fulfils the physical rest of the 
Jewish Sabbath by rest of the soul, by 
freedom from anxious doubts and fears. It 
fulfils pagan pleasure by a deeper joy born 
of faith, hope, and love. 



HE sense of reverence needs to be edu- 



1 cated. It is cultivated by looking up, 
and not down ; by choosing for our associates 
the best and wisest men and women ; by seek- 
ing for companions the intelligent, the gener- 
ous, and the good. It is cultivated by looking 
for the good in men and things rather than 
the evil ; by seeking truth rather than error ; 
by reading noble books in which this spirit 
prevails; by choosing the company in which 
serious and noble things are treated seriously. 



November 4. 




2 86 



MESSAGES OF 



In such society the best part of our nature 
grows, while among the flippant and the friv- 
olous we, also, become small and empty. It 
is good to believe in heroes and heroism, in 
saints and martyrs. It is good to read and 
study the lives of the generous and disinter- 
ested, the pure in heart, those who sutler for 
righteousness' sake. Avoid the atmosphere 
which is full of sneers at generosity, which 
doubts sentiment, which distrusts conscience, 
which calls all religion hypocrisy. Look for 
truth, for goodness, for honesty, and you will 
find them. It may seem very smart and witty 
to speak irreverently of parents, elders, the 
past, of religion, the Church, the Bible; but 
you have to pay a heavy price for that wit. 
Your mind grows flippant and mean. That 
which comes out of your mouth defiles you. 
This is the harm of profanity. It does not 
injure God to take his name in vain, but it 
injures you. Every time you utter an oath you 
are laying another stone on the wall between 
yourself and heavenly things. You are de- 
grading your nature, darkening your mind, 
making faith in things unseen more difficult. 
But all serious and earnest conversation on 
high themes lifts us up nearer to that of 
which we think and speak. 



November 5. 

THE chief diseases of the conscience are 
stupor and ignorance. The conscience 
may be inactive or it may be badly in- 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



287 



structed. The sins of the time, the crimes 
against society, the swindling transactions, the 
defalcations, the betrayals of trust, the repu- 
diation of public obligations, are not usually 
deliberate violations of what is seen to be 
right, but rather come from consciences 
stupefied, sophisticated, and uninstructed. 

The education of the conscience is of three 
kinds. It needs to be awakened, to be 
enlightened, and to be trained. It is awak- 
ened by being taught the obligations we owe 
to God and man ; that man is under law ; 
that no one has a right to do as he pleases, 
but that all are responsible to God and to the 
truth for every action of their lives. It is 
roused by the doctrine of the judgment to 
come, by being taught that all our lives are to 
be ultimately known and seen in the light of 
eternal truth, and that every man is to give 
an account of himself to God. It is the duty 
of the Church to arouse the conscience by 
these solemn truths, and to show to all men 
that for every idle word they are to give an 
account in the day of the revelation of God's 
truth ; that there is nothing covered that 
shall not be revealed, nor anything hid which 
shall not be known. 



November 6. 

USE and improve, or lose. This is the 
sentence pronounced on each of us by 
all the courts of God, in the physical, in- 
tellectual, and moral world. Use and improve 



288 



MESSAGES OF 



your muscles and your perceptions, or they 
will gradually, but certainly, fail. Use and 
improve your memory, your understanding, 
your judgment, or they will become feeble. 
Use and improve your conscience, or it grows 
torpid. Use and improve the powers which 
look up to an infinite truth, beauty, and good- 
ness, and they lift you toward these. Let 
them sleep, and they cannot see this kingdom 
of God, this divine element in the universe. 
The fool, who has not developed his spiritual 
nature, says in his heart, "There is no God." 
Nature reaches its hand to Revelation to 
maintain this law ; and both, with concurrent 
voice, cry, "Use and improve, or lose." 



November 7. 

LET us follow these simple rules : — 
1. Look for good, not evil, in all 
things. Cultivate the habit of seeking the 
best in every person and every event. The 
bane of our life is that cynical contempt 
which finds in all things only weakness, only 
something to be criticised and despised. 
Seek good, as Jesus sought it, everywhere; 
and, if we seek, we shall find. Faith in God 
is faith in goodness; and, conversely, faith 
in goodness is faith in God, and leads to 
him. 

2. Do always the best you can. Be not 
satisfied with doing as well to-day as you did 
yesterday, but look up to something higher 
and better. Look upon each new day which 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 289 



comes as an opening into a higher world and 
a better life. When an opportunity of doing 
good comes, think that God sends it. Be 
faithful in small things, because they also are 
divine duties, full of heavenly peace, and may 
lead to the greatest blessing. 

3. Select the best influences, read the best 
books, see the best people. Surround your 
mind and heart with what is highest. We 
can never escape the influence of our environ- 
ment. If we habitually associate with those 
who disbelieve in God, in human goodness, 
in the possibility of progress, we shall take 
that tone ourselves. If we go with those who 
make this life a playground, who live only for 
self-indulgence, we also shall drift in that di- 
rection. But, if we seek the companionship 
of the pure and generous, the upright and 
honorable, their lives will send an influence 
into ours, and we shall find it easier to be 
generous ourselves. 



November 8. 

EVEN the use of money may teach us 
higher things than prudence, economy, 
and judgment. We may also be educated 
in this way to generosity and benevolence. 

Benevolence and generosity are not im- 
pulses, but habits ; that is, by practice, the 
impulse may become a habit. Impulsive 
benevolence may do more harm than good. 
To give is an art requiring study and 
practice. God loves a cheerful giver; but he 



290 



MESSAGES OF 



also loves a judicious giver. — a giver who is 
willing to give time and thought as well as 
money. Giving money may be like pouring 
water on the sand or like planting a seed in 
good ground. You may help a man in a way 
to teach him to lean on you. and to take 
away his self-reliance and self-respect. Or 
you may help him in a way that enables him 
to help himself, and encourages him to go 
forward in a career of activity and usefulness. 

The principle is the important thing : where 
this is, the right method will follow. Only 
we must remember that giving is both an art 
and a habit; an accomplishment which is to 
be learned, and a custom to be practised. 
The mistake made by many persons is to 
suppose that they can devote all their 
thought and energy for years to accu- 
mulation, and afterwards learn how to use 
aright what has been thus gathered. It takes 
as much time and thought to learn how to 
spend money as to learn how to make money. 
So that, sometimes, a man who has shown 
great talent and energy in collecting a fortune 
stands helpless before it, not knowing what 
to do with it after it is acquired. Whereas, if 
he had begun in youth to practise the right 
way of using property as well as acquiring it, 
he would have the double satisfaction of re- 
ceiving and giving. For there is no way in 
which wealth can bring so much satisfaction 
to its possessor as when it is wisely and 
generously applied to all good objects. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



291 



November 9. 

BUSINESS life, which is full of temptation 
to insincerity, has also an opposite 
influence. It often educates men to fidelity. 
If the majority of men did not usually 
keep their engagements, business could not 
be carried on. There is a code of business 
honor which educates many men to truth in 
other things. To such men business is a 
religious education. The idea of fidelity to 
one's engagements is often found where we 
least expect it. It is a sort of sheet-anchor 
holding the soul to truth amid the wreck of 
many virtues. 



It is not so much opportunity as fidelity 
which conducts to the greatest results. The 
ships with which the Northmen discovered 
Iceland, Greenland, and the coast of Massa- 
chusetts were not much larger than our little 
pilot boats. The apparatus with which 
Faraday made his discoveries was of the 
simplest sort. Ferguson became a great 
astronomer by lying on his back in the sheep 
pastures, measuring the distances of the stars 
with beads strung on a thread. Thus fidelity 
in a little leads to knowledge of much. 



November 10. 

IF we look for a Christ coming in the sky, 
sitting on the clouds, surrounded with 
visible angels, blowing an audible trumpet, 



292 



MESSAGES OF 



we shall not see the real Christ who is here 
at our side in the streets of Boston. That is 
my objection to prophetic expectations, — 
that they dull our souls to the ever-present 
realities of God and heaven. 

The real Christ will come to you to-day if 
you will. When you go to your work, if 
you ask of God a right spirit, if you begin the 
day with the desire to be of use to some one, 
to be in a spirit of true sympathy with those 
about you, and go through the day trusting 
in God's presence and help to enable you 
to be of use to your fellow-men, you will 
have Christ with you all the day. You will 
not see any shining cross in the sky; but you 
will be able to bear your earthly cross, and 
will find yourself brought into kindly relations 
with others, able to help them in simple ways, 
giving and receiving sympathy. This is the 
real coming of Christ to us ; and then we 
hear him saying, " Inasmuch as ye did it 
to the least of these my brethen, ye did it 
unto me." 

November 11. 

PERHAPS Jesus comes to us in the form 
of our country, crucified between two 
thieves. Its public offices are seized by 
robbers : its sacred ballot-box, the palladium 
of its liberty, is violated by fraud. We are 
asked to give a few days every year to the 
service of the country, but we cannot leave 
our shops long enough even to go and vote. 
Yet we talk loudly of the blessings of free 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE, 293 

institutions. We boast, when we meet a 
foreigner, of our glorious republic 0 Judas ! 
You betray your Savior with a kiss ! 

The time will come when all places of busi- 
ness will be closed by law on election-day, 
just as on the Sunday; when cheating at the 
polls will be treated as worse than sacrilege ; 
and when every man who does not vote will 
be punished by fine or disfranchisement. 



HE time has come when legislation should 



1 be devoted to the high work which our 
great position requires of us. With our 
opportunities, we can do what no other nation 
can. Other nations are hampered by old 
customs, class privileges, vested rights, time- 
worn traditions. We are free, strong, untied 
to any past. Great social questions demand 
from us their solution. We ought to call on 
our public men to study such questions, to 
devote themselves to live issues, no longer 
to give up to party what was meant for man- 
kind. 

What, then, are our duties as a people at 
the present time ? 

The first political duty is to break the 
power of machine politics. The power of 
the machine consists in possessing the of- 
fices, and using them as bribes. The down- 
fall of this power will be found in the success 
of the civil service reform. Let all offices 
be given by competitive examination, and let 



November 12. 




294 MESSAGES OF 

no office-holder be dismissed except for cause. 
Let no man win an office by the favor of a 
politician, but only because he is the best 
fitted to hold it ; and let him hold it during 
good behavior. This is the first great duty 
of the American people if they would regain 
their own freedom. 



November 13. 

AGAIN, there is the great evil of intem- 
perance, which demands the action of 
the State. Let a commission of the wisest 
men and women be appointed to consider 
carefully the subject in all its bearings. In- 
stead of discussing, year after year, license or 
no license, prohibition or local option, let the 
whole subject be examined without reference 
to party. Let some wise and practical plan 
be adopted for limiting the sale of liquor, for 
preventing the young from being tempted, for 
shutting up saloons, and for offering the la- 
boring people better pleasure, innocent amuse- 
ments. Hard-working men and women rush 
into intemperance because they need some 
kind of excitement, some sort of joyful sensa- 
tion. Let every town in the State take pains 
to furnish them with something better, — with 
halls for social intercourse, dramatic enter- 
tainments, pictures by the stereopticon, of the 
wonders and beauties of the world, good 
music, works of art, lectures on science and 
natural history, rooms well warmed and lighted, 
rooms for conversation and reading. This is 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



2 9S 



what the State might do, what towns might 
do, in which private liberality might co-oper- 
ate ; and this would remove much intemper- 
ance by removing its real cause. 



November 14. 

AGAIN, there is the great question of 
penal legislation, which needs an entire 
reform. At present our jails and prisons are 
often called reformatories, but they are mostly 
schools of crime. The whole system needs 
to be radically changed. If the legislature of 
Massachusetts shall appoint a commission 
for this purpose, and have a plan framed, of 
prison discipline and laws corresponding 
thereto, adapted to the whole State, we might 
see the time when, as in some of the prisons 
of Ireland, men would come out of prisons 
really reformed, and easily find honest work 
and happy homes. Is not this something 
which Massachusetts might do, not only for 
itself, but for mankind ? 

It is idle to attempt to carry forward the 
strong, and let the weak drop behind. Society 
is like the human body, in which, if one mem- 
ber suffers, all will suffer. The only truly 
conservative power is in that Christianity 
which is like God, and is not willing that any 
should perish. 

Because we despised the negroes, calling 
them an inferior race, only fit for slaves, we 
paid the penalty of the awful Civil War. If 
we say that the Chinese have no rights we 



296 



MESSAGES OF 



are bound to respect, that the Indians have 
no rights that we are bound to respect, can 
we escape the consequences ? No. Despise 
and neglect any of your fellow-men, call any 
man common and unclean, forget the prin- 
ciples of human brotherhood, and the laws of 
divine retribution are sure to demand of you 
the penalty. You cannot escape it by talking 
about the survival of the fittest. Society 
must be reorganized on Christian principles, 
or be always unsafe. It can be so organized. 
There is no kind of business but may be car- 
ried on upon Christian principles. 



November 15. 

OUR present system of tariff taxes about a 
thousand articles imported from abroad. 
It is kept up by a powerful lobby which 
breaks down every attempt to alter or im- 
prove it. It puts heavy duties on the raw 
materials of manufacture, on iron, steel, lum- 
ber, wool. It is based on a fundamentally 
false and unchristian principle ; namely, that 
each nation is to think only of its own in- 
terests, and that the interests of other na- 
tions are necessarily hostile to its own, — that, 
if other nations gain, it must lose. This is 
not only unchristian, but absurd. The in- 
terests of all peoples are so bound together 
to-day that, when one suffers, all suffer ; when 
one is prosperous, all prosper. In this coun- 
try we have adopted the principle of China, 
and one which China has nearly outgrown, — 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 297 



the principle of exclusion. The United States, 
by its tariff, has made itself the China of 
Christendom. The moral influence is as bad 
as the political and commercial. We not only 
tax our own people and shackle their indus- 
try, but we teach them that the poor foreign 
laborers, ground down by oppression, are not 
our brothers, but our enemies. Why, in order 
to make a few people here rich, should I in- 
crease the poverty of a thousand laborers in 
Germany or England? The time must come 
for this to cease. 



November 16. 

FINALLY, let women take their part in 
public affairs, as they are beginning to 
do. I do not complain of those who oppose 
woman suffrage. Every real reform needs op- 
position, and grows stronger by opposition. 
But I cannot doubt that the time draws near 
in which the peculiar powers of women are to 
be used by the community in helping to re- 
move social misery, to elevate the poor, to do 
away with pauperism, to be guardians to the 
wards of the State, to soothe the shattered 
nerves of the insane, to arrange the domestic 
life of hospitals, of prisons, to care for sick 
souls as well as sick bodies, to infuse human- 
ity and Christianity into legislation. The 
hour cometh and now is when woman shall 
use her gifts, not merely to win admiration, 
but to bring some sunshine, some rays of 
beauty and tenderness, into rude homes, lonely 



2 9 8 



MESSAGES OF 



and hopeless hearts. And the basis on which 
all this must rest will be woman suffrage. 
Woman shall carry refinement to the polls, 
and become the companion of man in this as 
she is meant to be in all of his work. She 
shall go there, not as a privilege, not even as 
a right, but to take her part in a great duty, — 
in doing something for the nation and the 
institutions which are doing so much for her. 



November 17. 

I SHOULD like to see Sunday made in ev- 
ery family the happiest of days ; a day in 
which no gloom is allowable ; a day on which 
every one of the family should bring all his 
gifts of good-humor and inventions of kind- 
ness to the rest. 

I hope that Christian men and women will 
not oppose innocent recreation on Sunday, 
will not endeavor to confine it to religious ex- 
ercises, or to bring back the old Puritanic 
Sabbath which neither we nor our fathers 
were able to bear. But let Christian men 
and women, who have happy homes and op- 
portunities for recreation themselves, on other 
days, seek to bring suitable pleasure to those 
whose lives are hard and cold and empty. 
Let them try to make Sunday a bright and 
happy day for all ; a day to lift up the soul to 
God, and bring man nearer to his brother. 
Let every Sunday sing the angel's song to all 
human hearts of " Glory to God in the high- 
est, and on earth peace, good will to men." 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 299 

Then we shall better understand Herbert's 
tender verses to this day : — 

" O day, most calm, most bright, 
The fruit of this, the next world's bud, . . . 
The week were dark but for thy light, 
Thy torch doth show the way." 

" Thou art a day of mirth ; 
And, when the week-days trail on ground, 
Thy flight is higher, as thy birth : 
Then let me take thee with a bound, 
Leaping with thee from seven to seven, 
Till that we both, being tossed from earth, 
Fly hand in hand to heaven." 



November 18. 

IT has often been the case that, while knaves 
have been ingenious in their rascality, 
good people have gone in a blind and help- 
less way about their good works. It has be- 
come a proverb that religious people are 
easily imposed upon, that they have little 
knowledge of the world or of human nature. 
If their purpose is right, they are contented. 
They are apt to adopt this want of judgment 
as a rule, and to say, " Do right, and leave 
the result to God." But, since the Lord has 
given good people brains, why not use them ? 
Once in a great while we find a man, like Dr. 
Franklin, who is as sagacious in doing good 
as others are in doing wrong. He discovered 
ingenious ways of helping those who were in 
need. But charitable people often give in a 
way to create more suffering than they re- 



300 



MESSAGES OF 



lieve. Philanthropists go blindly on their 
way ; patriots rush forward, inconsiderate of 
obstacles ; religious people have a zeal for 
God without knowledge. But Jesus taught 
his disciples that they ought not only to be 
as harmless as doves, but also as wise as ser- 
pents. With the devotion of martyrs ready 
to die for their cause, they must join the ut- 
most good sense in working for it. It is not 
enough to mean to do good : we must accom- 
plish something. Conscience, which only 
wishes to save its own soul, may say, u I will 
do right, and leave the result to God"; but 
love, which desires to help its neighbor effect- 
ually, puts its mind as well as its heart into 
work. It acts like the good Samaritan, who 
did not merely bind up the poor man's 
wounds, and then leave him, but put him on 
his own beast, carried him to the inn, took care 
of him there, and, when he went away, made 
arrangements to have him taken care of as 
long as he needed anything. We do not want 
a blind, fanatical philanthropy, but a saga- 
cious philanthropy and a wise patriotism 
which keeps to its end, but carefully consid- 
ers the means. 



November 19. 

ASCETICISM throws away a great power 
given by God to help and improve us. 
It abandons to evil what might be a vast 
motor force leading to good. John Wesley 
saw the true principle when he adapted hymns 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 3 01 

to cheerful tunes, declaring that the devil 
ought not to have all the good music. The 
principle of amusement may be used to make 
all study, all culture, all improvement, attrac- 
tive. Thus the study of history has in our 
day, by Macaulay, Motley, Carlyle, and other 
writers, been made as entertaining as novels, 
— much more so, indeed, than the majority of 
novels. We ought to change the natural de- 
sire for amusement into the higher emjoyment 
of amusement connected with study and use- 
ful labor. 



To all amusements apply the following 
rules : i. Let your amusements be inexpen- 
sive, so that many may share them. 2. Let 
them be social and open, for whatever is open 
to all eyes is more likely to be innocent. 3. 
Let them be such as do not leave you unfit 
for your duties, but which refresh your weary 
mind and body, so that you can return to your 
work with renewed strength. 4. Let them 
not be such as degrade and corrupt and en- 
slave you to a habit, but such as elevate, 
strengthen, and purify the soul. The amuse- 
ments which stand these tests are innocent, 
useful, and Christian. But the chief thing to 
remember is this : that men need some sort 
of recreation ; that, if they cannot have good 
amusements, they will have bad ones ; and 
that, therefore, it is the duty of all, instead of 
merely condemning wrong and evil recrea- 
tions, to seek to replace them by better ones. 



302 



MESSAGES OF 



November 20. 



E glorify God with our body by keeping 



VV it in good health. 
Good health is the basis of physical, intel- 
lectual, moral, and spiritual development. In- 
valids have sometimes been distinguished as 
thinkers and workers. A powerful soul will 
triumph over bodily disease, but usually a sick 
thinker has something sickly in his thought. 
A certain amount of vital energy is necessary 
to give weight to the best argument. To be 
a great prophet, it is necessary not only to 
have inspiration and conviction, but also to 
possess a body able to endure fatigue, instinct 
with magnetic force and physical energy. So 
I repeat that bodily health is the foundation 
of all rounded self-culture, all integral devel- 
opment. I fully admit the power of the soul, 
under great spiritual and moral excitement, to 
compel a weak body to do its bidding. This 
is one of the most eminent proofs that soul is 
the king, and body its subject. A great soul 
may inspire a sick body with strength ; but, 
if the body were well, it would obey yet more 
promptly and effectually. 



While a healthy body helps to make a 
healthy soul, the reverse is yet more true. 
Mind lifts up. purines, sustains the body. 
Mental and moral activity keeps the body 
healthy, strong, and young, preserves from 
decay, and renews life. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 303 

November 21. 

I DO not believe in any minute self-scrutiny. 
I believe in a general self-examination, 
once for all, or once in a great while, and then 
in looking to see whether the engine is doing 
its work ; in daily self-examination, not of the 
motives, but of the conduct, of the actual life. 
Do not look within, to see whether you have 
sinned against the Holy Ghost or whether 
your feelings are right ; but look without, to 
see what you are doing for others, what you 
are saying, what your temper and spirit are 
to those about you. If the engine is working 
well, and the vessel is running, you may as- 
sume that the boilers are in good order. 



November 22. 

PARENTS do not intend to discourage 
their children. But they sometimes do 
so unintentionally, by not being able to put 
themselves in the place of the children. Par- 
ents and teachers often imagine that all chil- 
dren are alike, and think that what one is 
able to do another ought to do. But children 
differ in their organization, and some find it 
hard to accomplish what is to others easy. 
Nor do the children themselves understand 
what the difficulty is. Parents and teachers 
are apt to assume that, when a child does not 
do as he is told or as he ought to do, he is 
wilfully disobedient. So they think that they 
ought to punish the child, or, at any rate, they 



MESSAGES OF 



show that they are offended and hurt by the 
child's behavior. But, when the mysterious 
and complex chords of a child's mind are jan- 
gled and out of tune, he cannot do the thing 
he would, though he does not know why. 
There is a temporary moral derangement of 
his faculties. Your watch will occasionally 
stop for no good reason that you can per- 
ceive. Then it begins to go again as well as 
before. But the machinery of a watch is far 
less intricate and delicate than the motor 
forces of the human soul. I think a great 
many children have been discouraged because 
they could not learn their lessons, and were 
called stupid and thought themselves so. when 
perhaps a little pains taken by parents or 
friends would have tided them over the diffi- 
culty. And many have been thought obsti- 
nate and perverse when all they needed was 
sympathy, patience, and kindness to help 
them out of the transient mood of bad temper 
into which the}' had fallen. When they are 
discouraged, they give up all attempt to do 
better. Do we not all remember having had 
just such feelings when we were children? 
We needed to be encouraged, not blamed. 



November 23. 

IT is not enough that we have secured uni- 
versal education : the next step is to 
elevate it, to take it out of traditions, to make 
it practical and vital. Much has been done 
for this in our country from the time of the 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 305 

teaching and experiments of Horace Mann 
down to those recently made in Quincy. But 
far more is needed. Every child in this 
country should have the opportunity of an 
education which should first enable him to 
earn his own living, — an industrial education. 
Then he should be taught the great principles 
of national life, the principles of justice, free- 
dom, truth, on which our institutions are 
founded ; then the history of the nation, the 
lives of its great men, the love to God and to 
man which make the essence of all religion. 
Every teacher should keep before his mind 
this fact, — that he has these children in his 
hands to inspire with an ardor for what is 
noble, true, and right, not merely to drill them 
in some text-book. 



HE chief difficulty with our religion is 



1 that it is too stiff and formal ; it is put 
away by itself, as something for Sundays ; it 
does not show us God, as Paul said, " not far 
from any one of us," — in the deep blue sky, 
in the glowing sunlight, in the music and 
poetry which touch our inmost hearts, in the 
love of a dear friend, in the hand which 
touches ours in our sorrow with a magnetic 
thrill of sympathy. And, if a better thought 
or purpose arises in our heart, and we long to 
know and love God and goodness, this also is 
God, who touches the soul as the musician 
the strings of the harp. The harp has stood 



November 24, 




306 



MESSAGES OF 



voiceless and covered with dust for years ; 
but one day the master comes, and draws 
from it symphonies of celestial joy, and 
makes it sing thanksgivings and allelujahs 
like those of heaven. Our heart is thus silent 
until God touches it : then it rises into strains 
of peace, courage, hope, love. 



HE greatest soul and the largest heart 



1 that ever lived on earth had for friends 
some of the simplest of men and women. 
How he loved those disciples, and loved them 
to the end, educating them by slow degrees 
to comprehend a very little of his thoughts, 
hopes, and purposes ! Yet what a gulf re- 
mained between his mind and theirs ! He 
could not make them understand the spiritual 
nature of his kingdom, the probability of his 
death, the rising from the dead into a higher 
life. But still he loved them, — the unstable, 
impetuous Peter, the sceptical Thomas, the 
ardent soul of John, Martha, Mary, Laza- 
rus, Mary Magdalene. He loved these simple, 
undeveloped minds. For his greatness en- 
abled him to see in them the capacity which 
no others could see, of becoming at last his 
apostles, missionaries, and martyrs. He saw 
in their present fidelity a guarantee of their 
future power. They were faithful in a few 
things, and could become rulers over many 
things. 

And what he saw in them God sees in us. 



November 25. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 307 

We, also, are weak, ignorant, full of errors, 
faults, and sins. We have faults of temper, 
faults of character : we are careless or selfish 
or forgetful of our duties. But if we are try- 
ing to be faithful, if we are beginning to do 
what is right, God sees in that small begin- 
ning a power which his grace will help to un- 
fold into perfect truth and love. If we are 
faithful in that which is another's, he will give 
us that which is our own. 



HE cure for bad temper is, first, to learn 



1 to obey one's conscience, and acquire 
a habit of doing what is right ; and, second, 
to learn to forget one's self, and acquire a 
habit of living for others. Then there enters 
the soul that good temper which is higher than 
good nature, more lasting and more profound 
than good humor, — the good temper which 
grows deeper and purer and sweeter with ad- 
vancing years, which no wrong can imbitter, 
no misfortune chill, which sits in the sunlight, 
and enjoys clear day when darkness falls 
around. Such a one is " his own music, his 
own health." He has a summer day all the 
way to heaven. 

Conscience and love, when they govern the 
character, and are accepted as its rulers, pro- 
duce this heavenly peace in the soul. All the 
powers fall into their places, and become har- 
monious under their sway. And these again 
are elevated to their supreme place, when we 
come to know and to love God. 



November 26. 




3 o8 



MESSAGES OF 



Love, sitting in the heart, touches all the 
keys, and brings out all the music. If we de- 
sire to do what will please God and what will 
help man, we presently find ourselves taken 
out of our narrow habits of thought and 
action ; we rind new elements of our nature 
called into activity ; we are no longer running 
along a narrow track of selfish routine : we are 
necessarily brought, in the providence of God, 
into new relations, have new and difficult 
duties: but the result appears in a healthy 
state of mind and heart, and that perfume 
and aroma which we call good temper. 



November 27. 

THEREFORE, the first condition of all 
true life is a supreme love to God and 
goodness. If. each day, we seek, first of all, 
to be in a spirit of good will, to be open to 
sympathy with those around us, to do for love 
of God whatever work he sends us, to do for 
others whatever our hand finds to do, then 
we shall have that " perfume tempered to- 
gether, pure and holy," which shall make the 
day sweet and the night serene, — the peace 
passing understanding which Christ's love 
gives, and the world cannot take away. 

Have we not sometimes seen persons on 
whom this ineffable dove of peace seems al- 
ways to brood ? — some persons whom nothing 
could disturb, — no accident, no disappoint- 
ment, no disaster ; who never seemed vexed, 
never discomposed, never sore, never out of 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 309 



temper ; who were impregnable to all assaults 
of evil ; who were like the rock in the sea 
over which the great billows break and roar, 
but which stands unmoved, and emerges at 
last calm and firm as ever. 

What produced this divine serenity, subject 
to no moods, clouded by no depression, this 
perpetual Sunday of the heart? It was not 
merely good-nature, not the accident of a 
happy organization. It was deeper than that. 
It was the perfect poise resulting from a Chris- 
tian experience. It was the habit of looking 
to God in love and to man in love. 



November 28. 

IT has been usual for preachers to speak of 
the temporal things which pass away as 
though they were therefore worthless. But 
they are of infinite worth, if they are • the 
means of reaching that which shall abide. If 
we can change time into eternity, wealth into 
generosity, thought into knowledge, opportu- 
nities which pass away into faith, hope, and 
love which abide, then riches, talents, and all 
outward visible things have a divine value. 
That which can become an infinite good is 
itself almost an infinite good. We will not, 
then, despise these things which God lends 
us because they are not yet our own. We 
will bless him for the simple joys of every 
day, the simple affections of time, the com- 
mon, every-day work of life, the springs and 
summers which come and go, the money we 



3io 



MESSAGES OF 



make and spend, the business we transact; 
for all are parts of that Jacob's ladder which 
reaches from earth to heaven. 

O my heart, learn, then, to love God 
through his works ! Love the infinite truth 
and perfect beauty in the universe and in 
human lives, by the finite duties of each pass- 
ing hour. Love all that is good here, and so 
love the infinite goodness here and beyond. 
Look away from darkness to light. Seek the 
best things in all God's children, by whatever 
name they may be called. Respect and love 
goodness, wherever it may be ; and believe 
that all the goodness in thyself and in others 
must come down from the Supreme Goodness, 
and lead back to him. Turn away, O my 
soul, from all things false, base, and mean. 
Look up to the pure and perfect heaven of 
truth which hangs its deep canopy of blue 
above us. unsoiled by the passing cloud, — the 
home of the eternal stars, the highway of the 
majestic sun, the emblem of a divine purity 
and an illimitable peace. 



HERE are always two handles presented 



1 to us : and every day, if we listen, we 
shall hear God say to us, " Choose to-day 
which to take ! " We can take hold in every- 
thing which befalls us of the handle of doubt, 
of anxiety, of fault-finding, of fear, of pleas- 
ure, custom, expediency, personal gratifica- 
tion and self-seeking ; or we can take hold 



November 29. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 31 1 

of the handle of trust, of hope, of candid, lib- 
eral judgment, of duty, personal conviction, 
right, and generous, self-forgetting good-will. 
Our days will be sweet or bitter, events will 
seem gloomy or bright, the world a good world 
or a bad world, according as we take every- 
thing by one handle or the other. The art of 
life consists in taking each event which be- 
falls us with a contented mind, confident of 
good. This makes us grow younger as we 
grow older, for youth and joy come from the 
soul to the body more than from the body to 
the soul. With this method and art and 
temper of life, we live, though we may be 
dying. We rejoice always, though in the 
midst of sorrows ; and possess all things, 
though destitute of everything. 



HE best and highest of all influences is 



1 that which comes to us when we walk 
daily in the presence of our heavenly Father. 
What a difference it would make if we should 
every morning look up, open our hearts, and 
seek for guidance, good influence, a good 
spirit from that divine Power who is always 
waiting to be gracious ! " Waiting to be gra- 
cious " ; waiting till we give him an opportu- 
nity of blessing us ; knocking at the door of 
our heart till we are willing to open it to that 
which is most tender and blessed in the uni- 
verse. The goodness of our best friends 
sometimes grows weary ; but his is never 



November 30. 




312 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



tired out by our folly or our sin. The best 
and noblest human heart is not always pre- 
pared to meet our emergency ; but God's love 
is at hand in its fulness every hour. 

Let us surround ourselves with all this 
human and superhuman help, thus to meet 
the exigencies of our life. 



^December, 



LIFE ETERNAL. 



December i. 



HE problem of human existence may be 



1 stated thus, How can we change time 
into life ? In some men the mental, moral, 
and spiritual life and energy continue to in- 
crease so long as they remain in this world. 
While the body is growing old, mind and 
heart remain young : while the outward man 
perishes, the inward man is renewed day by 
day. 

Time cannot be detained ; but, while it is 
passing, we may be able to change it into 
something which will last always, — that is, im- 
mortal or undying life, or what the Scriptures 
call eternal life. For immortal life, eternal 
life, means that kind of life which does not 
decay and change, — not future existence, but 
present fulness of being. Bodily life decays 
with years ; but all of immortal life we have 
within us will last unchanged, never growing 
old, never wearing out. Our business is to 




316 



MESSAGES OF 



change the bodily existence, measured by 
time, into spiritual existence, belonging to 
eternity. 

December 2. 

GOD is in nature ; and so the man who 
loves and studies nature receives life 
from that study. 

But God is also present in man. Those 
who are interested in their fellow-beings, who 
are laboring for the progress of humanity, 
seeking to save the lost, advocating reforms, 
helping their neighbors, — they also become 
full of life. They are in communion with 
God, and drinking at the great source of eter- 
nal life. 

December 3. 

THE years, as they pass on, are changed 
into life, partly by God's providence, 
and without any effort of ours. It is done by 
a law of our nature. God has so made us 
that, while we grow old in one way, we grow 
young in another way ; while we are becoming 
more weak in body, we grow more strong in 
spirit. That is the natural tendency of things, 
if we do not oppose it by our own wilfulness. 
If we accept patiently and trustingly what 
comes to us from God, there comes with it an 
inward strength and peace. What we have to 
add on our part is trust, submission, fidelity. 
Let us be loyal to our work, whatever it is. 
Whatever our hand finds to do, let us do it 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



317 



with our might. Let us forget the things be- 
hind, — disappointment, sorrow, the unkind- 
ness of others, remorse over ourselves. Leave 
them behind, and reach out to things before, 
— to deeper knowledge, larger usefulness, 
purer love. And so, while the outward man 
perishes, the inward man will be renewed day 
by day. 

One of the most convincing arguments for 
immortality is the undying appetite of the 
soul for knowledge, love, progress. As we 
approach the term of life, it never occurs to 
us that it is time to fold our arms, close our 
eyes, and bid farewell to nature, poetry, art, 
friendship, business. As long as our faculties 
permit, we take exactly the same interest in 
life as if we were to live fifty years longer. 



December 4. 

I THINK that, if we have a sincere desire 
to know and to serve God, the years 
change our religion into life. We cease to 
harass ourselves or others much about mere 
questions of dogma or sect. A very few cen- 
tral truths satisfy us. Trust in God, love to 
man, are enough. Our prayers cease to be 
formal, and become a habit of the soul, — 
waiting on God, looking to him for strength, 
dwelling in his infinite peace. Our faith in 
Christ turns to love. What to us are ques- 
tions about his nature, whether supernatural 
or not, about his transcendental or primeval 
being ? We know that our joys and our sor- 



3i8 



MESSAGES OF 



rows touch his heart ; that, when we wrong 
man, we wrong him ; when we help man, we 
help him. We all, in our different phrases, 
still look to him as the Way, the Truth, and 
the Life. We learn to see in Jesus not Mas- 
ter and Lord only, but tender Brother and 
blessed Friend. We obey him best when we 
are true to what is right and good. 

" Our Friend, our Brother, and our Lord, 
What may thy service be ? 
Nor name, nor form, nor ritual word, 
But simply following thee." 

So Christianity becomes a reality and a 
part of our life. It ceases to be profession, 
and becomes strength and peace. The out- 
ward part may perish, but the inward part is 
renewed day by day. 



HAT is meant by the kingdom of heaven ? 



VV It is the reign of God, first in the 
human heart, and then in the human life ; the 
reign of truth and love ; the reign of the Mes- 
siah foretold by the prophets, when men 
should beat their swords into ploughshares, 
and when the desert should rejoice and blos- 
som as the rose. It is the reign of Christ here 
and now : it is Christianity in this world, be- 
ginning here, continued hereafter. The king- 
dom of heaven is not heaven in the other 
world, but heaven in this world ; not heaven 



December 5. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 319 

hereafter, but heaven here. It is true that it 
is continued into the other world ; but it begins 
in this world. Heaven itself is the invisible, 
spiritual world of God ; but the kingdom of 
heaven is that world descending into this, — 
God with us, the tabernacle of God with men. 
The kingdom of heaven means Christianity 
here, or Christ reigning in the heart, in the 
Church, in society, and in the State. 



HE outward heaven opens for every man 



1 directly out of this inward heaven. 
There is no locked door between. It is an 
open way directly upward. When we enter 
the inward heaven in our own soul, we are on 
the way to the heaven beyond. If the heaven 
in the soul is not open, the heaven beyond is 
closed. Peter and the apostles do not sit by 
the gate of any outward heaven, but by the 
gate of the heaven in the soul ; and they hold 
the keys, and offer them to us. 

What are the keys of the kingdom of 
heaven? The keys are the power by which 
the door into this kingdom shall be opened. 
The kingdom is Christianity ; the door is 
Christ himself ; and the key is whatever re- 
veals Christ. Jesus says : " I am the door. 
Through me, if any man enter in, he shall 
be saved, and shall go in and out, and find 
pasture/' 



December 6. 




320 



MESSAGES OF 



December 7. 

GOD makes' a new heavens and a new 
earth, wherever the truth and love of 
Jesus go. The new heavens first, the new 
earth afterwards. First the inward convic- 
tions, then the outward life. First the seed, 
then the plant, the fruit last of all. We are 
not to try to do our duty that God may love 
us, but, because God loves us, therefore let 
us do our duty. We are not to try to be good 
in order to go to heaven, but go into heaven 
now, by faith, submission, gratitude, patience, 
hope, love ; and then we shall easily grow up 
into all things. In order to grow, plants need 
sunshine. In order to any mental, moral, 
spiritual growth, the human plant needs sun- 
shine. People trying to make themselves fit 
to become God's children by painful and 
lonely effort seem to me like the vines in a 
dark cellar, stretching up their long, weak, 
sickly branches toward the light which shines 
feebly through a few small openings. Only 
believe that you are God's children, and that 
he loves you and will help you to correct all 
your faults, and grow up into a Christian life, 
and you are like the same vines planted out 
in the summer sunshine and June air, and 
fed by the dews and the softly falling showers. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 321 



December 8. 



HEN we seek to know what heaven is to 



VV be in the next world, we must ask what 
it is here. For, certainly, the kingdom of 
heaven comes also in this world, There are 
hours of heavenly peace in this life : we sit 
sometimes in heavenly places with Jesus, even 
now. Heaven is the peace of God which 
passeth understanding. 

This heaven below comes from the three 
elements which are to abide, — faith, hope, 
and love. Faith means the sight of the in- 
visible reality which is below the passing ap- 
pearance. It is the evidence of the reality 
of truth, goodness, wisdom. We endeavor to 
know, because we believe there is really 
something to be known. Faith, therefore, is 
the condition of knowledge, And what a joy 
and peace come to the soul from knowledge ! 
Knowledge of the laws of the universe, knowl- 
edge of the divine work in history, knowledge 
of our capacity of improvement, knowledge of 
Christ as a personal friend and benefactor ! 

Knowledge abides in the other world be- 
cause faith abides, — faith which is the sub- 
stance of things hoped for and the evidence 
of things not seen. Here we see as in a 
glass darkly, there face to face. We may 
there learn to understand the nature of life, 
the nature of the soul, the enigma of moral 
freedom, the cause and reason of the exist- 
ence of evil, all which are hidden from us 
here. But, as knowledge enlarges, faith will 
extend itself further, and root itself more 




322 



MESSAGES OF 



deeply in the soul. Far beyond what we 
know will be our trust in the unknown 
abysses of divine being. 



December 9. 

AND hope also will continue in the other 
life ; and this means that there will be 
progress hereafter as well as here. To hope 
means to look forward to something better ; 
but, unless that something better can be 
reached, the hope must perish. Therefore, 
continued hope implies continued progress. 
It means constant growth and development. 
It means ever-increasing knowledge, activity, 
power ; ever-increasing capacity for spiritual 
improvement : a never-ceasing ascent toward 
God, — powers growing more angelic, activity 
becoming more divine. 

And we may say as the surest of all cer- 
tainties that love will abide, — love of those 
who are above us in grandeur and beauty ; 
love for those who are beside us in sympathy 
and fellowship ; love toward those who are 
most helpless and needy, the souls which sit 
furthest down in darkness and the shadow of 
death. 

Love here is one of the best things we 
have : but love here is only in its rudiments. 
What may it not become in the other world, 
when we shall be lifted into communion with 
the wise, the good, the noble, the beautiful, 
who have gone up and on; when we shall 
be surrounded by their sympathy, blessed by 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 323 

their friendship ; when Christ shall come to 
find us with the angels and archangels, and 
when we, in our mansion, in our sphere, shall 
be able to work with them in theirs, for the 
advancement and redemption of the universe. 



HE wonderful description of charity, by 



1 the apostle Paul, is not rhapsody or 
declamation ; nor is it the account of an ideal 
super-angelic state, impossible for us here, 
but to be reached in some heavenly world. 
This divine power of love is possible for us 
all. Only let the love of God and man enter 
the soul, and you have in you the elements 
here described. You will find it not difficult 
to " suffer long and be kind." It will seem a 
simple thing not to envy, not to boast, not to 
behave unseemly, not to be always seeking 
your own. Whereas before you were easily 
provoked, now you smile at provocation, and 
are unruffled by injury. You become able to 
"bear all things," to "believe all things," to 
hope for all good in the midst of evil, and to 
" endure all things " to the end, patient be- 
cause sure that the Lord reigns. 



THIS was the supernatural element in 
Jesus, to be able to bring down heaven 
upon earth ; to make immortality present ; to 
incarnate the Messianic hope in his own life. 



December 10. 




December 11. 



324 



MESSAGES OF 



The hour cometh and now is when we shall 
understand Christianity better, and see that 
now is the day of salvation. We shall see 
that the work of the gospel is to show to us 
God present with us ; to show that Christ is 
" Immanuel," God with us: to show that 
heaven and hell are here ; that Christian sal- 
vation is a present salvation; that immortal- 
ity must begin now; that we must have eter- 
nal life abiding in us while in this world. 

Christ, to be of any use to us. must be a 
present Christ. The historic Christ of the 
New Testament, and the ideal Christ of 
Christian anticipation, must be realized in the 
present, in order to help us. The hope of 
glory is Christ within us. The study of the 
Gospels is necessary to make us acquainted 
with Jesus as a person ; but this person must 
become our friend in all our daily walk, in 
order to save us from evil and sin. Christ 
foretold that he should come again as a Holy 
Spirit. We must feel him present as the 
Holy Spirit in society, in history, in provi- 
dence, in our own heart. We must feel him 
present in all true reform, in all courageous 
struggle, in all noble endeavor. 



HERE are hours of bereavement which 



1 come to us all, when those we love the 
most and who love us best disappear from 
our side and leave us alone. In those sad 
moments we say: " Shall I ever see thee 



December 12. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE, 



325 



again, my brother, my friend, thou whose 
love for me was so wonderful? Has this 
most blessed gift of human life been given 
only to be taken away again? What proof 
have I of immortality ? The old arguments, 
which seemed strong enough when I had all 
I loved about me, are too weak now ! Open 
your lips, O secret, hidden from the founda- 
tion of the world ! Where have they gone, 
the wise, the tender, the noble souls whose 
friendship made life worth living ? " 

At such times argument is worthless. We 
do not wish to have a future life made prob- 
able : we wish to know it. And Jesus never 
argues for immortality by our methods of rea- 
soning. He beholds it by a mighty intui- 
tion, and speaks of it with a certainty which 
awakens our own deepest faith. He says, " I 
am the Resurrection and the Life." " Because 
I live, ye shall live also." 

The only sufficient evidence of future im- 
mortality is present immortality. He who 
lives now in the presence of eternal things, — 
God, truth, justice, infinite love, a perfect 
Providence, — he finds immortal life abiding 
in him. This inward experience of eternal 
things makes us sure of undying being. 
Death disappears from our sight while we 
thus live : only life remains. Every prayer 
for strength to do our duty brings us into 
communion with the unseen world. Every 
faithful effort to do well, every hour of patient 
endurance, puts us into communion with the 
things above. Thus Jesus, by lifting us into 
a nobler region of present life, plants within 



326 



MESSAGES OF 



us convictions of immortality. "He who 
lives and believes in me shall never die." 



HE power of the resurrection is in this, — 



1 that it abolishes death. It teaches us 
that death is really nothing. What we call 
death is a step on and up. It is a step up- 
ward to all, even to the worst man, to the 
most impenitent sinner. Resurrection strictly 
means ascent. Translated rightly, it is going 
up. They who have done good go up to the 
resurrection of life, they who have done evil to 
the resurrection of judgment. The good go 
up to receive more life : the bad go up to see 
themselves as they are, to be freed from self- 
deception, to know their folly and sin. There 
is keen suffering, no doubt, when the man 
who has deceived himself in this world, prided 
himself on his cunning, his fortune, power, 
success, sees himself as he is. But that suf- 
fering is good for him : he is higher than he 
was before. God's hell as well as God's 
heaven is above us, not below us. We go up 
to it, not down. 

Since God gives death to all his creatures, 
death must be as necessary a good as life. 
Death is a universal gift of God. Every creat- 
ure that lives must die. Therefore, death is 
no punishment, no evil, but a part of the uni- 
versal plan and law of progress. 



December 13. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 327 

December 14. 

IT is probably no abrupt shock to the one 
who appears to us to die. To himself he 
only seems, I suppose, to be placed in the 
midst of new scenes, new friends, new occu- 
pations. We shall be no more surprised, I 
imagine, at finding ourselves in the other 
world than we were at finding ourselves in 
this world. Softly we were cradled into ex- 
istence here, gently we shall be lifted into ex- 
istence there. There, as here, we shall be in 
a world of surrounding beauty and wonder ; 
there, as here, we shall find ourselves born 
into a home and a society ; there, as here, by 
slow degrees we shall understand our new 
home and our new work. 



HE rising of Jesus is to-day the source of 



1 comfort to thousands of broken hearts, 
to fathers and mothers, husbands and wives, 
friends and lovers. We look up and see the 
heavens opened. We see dear and noble 
friends standing in that divine light, dwelling 
in the fulness of that heavenly love. As we 
live from God, as we dwell* in things unseen, 
as we love and hope, the unseen world be- 
comes more near and present. If we look 
down, we see only the earth : when we look 
up, we behold the everlasting stars and the 
city of God. If, then, we would believe in 
immortality, we must live an immortal life. If 



December 15. 




328 



MESSAGES OF 



we live in the presence of God and immor- 
tality, our eyes will be opened to see them. 
The eternal life then abides in us. We sit 
then in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. 
The vast future surrounds and embraces the 
present, and gives dignity to our finite life. 
We belong, every one of us, not only to earth, 
but to heaven, to a never-ending future, a 
perpetual progress. " All things are ours, 
whether God, or life, or death, or things pres- 
ent, or things to come." 



HE resurrection of Christ also teaches us 



1 that those who ascend to God continue 
the same persons they were before, — that 
they have the same character, only elevated ; 
the same individual essence, only purified. 
They are, as Bryant says, 

" Lovelier in heaven's sweet climate, yet the same." 

For the poets are the prophets still, and 
often tell us the truth by an inspiration more 
orthodox than that of the theologians. No 
true poet ever for a moment doubted that he 
should know his friend hereafter, though the- 
ologians may sometimes doubt it ; for the 
heart which is illuminated by inspired thought 
can read beforehand the immortal and infinite 
quality in the soul, — that which is to make 
the future angel. When poets describe their 
friend, it seems extravagance to a prosaic 



December 16. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 329 



nature ; but it is the ideal nature of their 
friend they see and know, — the future angel 
in the present mortal. 



December 17. 

JESUS calls death a sleep. The ancients 
and moderns have called death the 
sister of sleep. Lewes, in a scientific work, 
says this is a mistake ; that sleep has noth- 
ing in it like death. Yet perhaps there is a 
deeper analogy than science can perceive. 
Death is not destruction : it is repose. The 
little child, full of wakeful life, hates to go to 
bed, longs to sit up later ; but the tired child 
drops sweetly into his little bed, the flushed 
cheek resting on the round arm. In all my 
experience of death-beds I have met only one 
case of a person who was unwilling to die. 
Usually death comes as sweetly as sleep, 
bringing with it a positive joy, and revealing 
beforehand to the soul something of the love 
and peace which lie beyond these shores of 
time. 

December 18. 

SOFT as an infant's sleep shall be the com- 
ing of death to you and me. Sweet 
shall be that rest as it falls on the weary soul 
and exhausted body. Tenderly shall the 
death cloud envelope us, and hide all familiar 
things from our failing sight. And when we 
wake again, with no abrupt transition, with 



33o 



MESSAGES OF 



no astonishment, but with a serene satisfac- 
tion, we shall find ourselves softly led into 
new being in the midst of old and new 
friends. 

December 19. 

WE often read and hear discussions on 
the question " whether we shall rec- 
ognize our friends hereafter." How can we 
ever doubt it? If love abides, are we not to 
know those whom we love? What would im- 
mortality be if we were to be separated from 
all the loved ones, the knowledge of whom 
has made the very essence and sweetness of 
our human life ? Would that be immortality 
if we left behind us the richest part of our 
souls ? The best that is in us has come to us 
from love to others and their love to us. Let 
that perish in forgetfulness, and we should 
go into the other world only half alive. We 
should have lost the best part of the results 
of our earthly life. That we should be thus 
separated from our friends was not the view 
of the great teacher. He emphasized in his 
last wonderful conversation with his disciples 
that his " going up " was not going away from 
them. He said : "I go away, and come to 
you." "I go to prepare a place for you. 
And, if I go to prepare a place for you, I will 
come again, and receive you unto myself; 
that where I am, there ye may be also." 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 331 

December 20. 

SHALL we know each other in the other 
world? Yes: far better than we know 
each other here. The progress of man im- 
plies a more intimate knowledge of his fellow- 
man. Animals seem to know each other 
chiefly in their external relations. Man, in 
his lower state, does not enter very deeply 
into the souls of those nearest to him. As he 
ascends, he knows them better. He under- 
stands more of their character, hopes, pur- 
poses, needs, qualities, defects, and so is able 
to help them much more effectually. But 
still how little we know of each other, how 
difficult is communication, how hard to tell 
what is within us ! How we misunderstand 
each other ! How we misinterpret each 
other's motives ! How seldom comes an hour 
of real intercourse when soul speaks to soul ! 
But, in the higher world I believe we shall 
enter easily and naturally into the most inti- 
mate communion, shall know as we are 
known. There all disguises and conceal- 
ments, all diffidence and distrust, shall fall 
away from the soul ; and we shall have the 
joy, perhaps the highest joy we have known 
on earth, of coming into intimate union with 
those we love. The heart-rending misunder- 
standings of this life will cease. The cruel- 
ties born of ignorance will be no more. The 
harsh, cold, bitter judgments we pass on each 
other will be left behind. 



332 



MESSAGES OF 



December 21. 

IF in a long life here I have gained anything 
which is worth keeping, it is the knowl- 
edge and friendship and love of pure, gen- 
erous, noble souls. Am I to lose that great 
inheritance ? Am I to go into the other 
world poor, lonely, homesick, alone ? I do 
not so understand the lessons of experience 
or the facts of observation. When all other 
memory fades from the mind of the dying, 
when his other thoughts are bewildered, the 
other impressions of time effaced, he still 
shows by a faint pressure of the hand, by a 
feeble sign of his head, that his love remains. 
The last look of the dim eye seeks the faces 
of those he loves. The last faint whisper of 
the failing voice is a murmur of blessing on 
those dear ones. Love is stronger than death : 
will it not survive the grave ? 

Yes : when I open my eyes on a new world, 
I expect to come once more into the company 
of those who have been my inspiration, my 
comfort, my joy, in this life. I shall learn 
what these years have been teaching them, 
and they shall be again my friendly compan- 
ions and helpers. I shall see again the par- 
ents and the dear children whose love has 
sweetened my life. I shall be a little child 
once more myself. Yes ; and I hope to come 
very near to my Master, Jesus, and to have 
my errors corrected, and be taught the alpha- 
bet of a higher language of truth. Not all at 
once, for the laws of gradation and limitation 
will apply there as here. But, if faith and 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 333 



hope and love abide, then there will be al- 
ways more of knowledge, more of work, and 
more of love in that divine beyond. 



December 22. 

SOMETIMES we go up into a mountain 
summit of thought, as when Jesus and 
his disciples ascended the Mount of Trans- 
figuration. We are taken away from the 
lower world, and our faces- are transfigured 
in the light of an opening heaven. Sweet and 
holy hours come sometimes to all of us, when 
life seems worth living, and we feel a pro- 
found rest. All weariness is gone, all lone- 
liness : we have a perfect peace in our heart. 
We say, like Peter : " Let us stay here. Let 
us put up tents here, and live always on this 
enchanted ground." But the inexorable cur- 
rent carries us on, and we descend again from 
that mountain. It recedes into the pale dis- 
tance, and stands at last almost a transpar- 
ent cloud on the far horizon. Yet we occa- 
sionally turn back and look at it, and are en- 
couraged by the knowledge that there are 
such moments in life, worth all the rest, which 
remain as the master-lights of all our being, 
which strengthen us in our weakness and 
comfort us in our sorrow. They are sent to 
teach us to " go up higher." 

It is not to be expected that we shall for- 
ever remain on the elevations we are compe- 
tent sometimes to reach. We have hours of 
perfect peace, insight, courage, followed by 



334 



MESSAGES OF 



other hours of routine, of hard work, of dis- 
comfort, of impatience, — hours in which we 
almost forget that God or man has ever loved 
us. Be thankful that, though we may thus 
forget God, he does not forget us. And be 
thankful if you know by your own experience 
that there is such a thing as peace and love, 
even though you may for the time have lost 
them. You have not really lost them, if you 
have ever really had them. God never takes 
back his gifts. If he ever gave you a sight 
of his truth and love, you have it still. 
Clouds may pass between you and the sun : 
but the sun is there, and will shine forth 
again. It may be a stormy night, and the 
stars are hidden ; but they shine on, perma- 
nent and pure, behind the driving rain, and 
will again look out upon you with their calm 
eyes, and say, from their inaccessible and in- 
finite heights, " Be patient, little child ! be pa- 
tient ! and wait till all storms and all darkness 
shall have passed away forever." 



E want no better world than this, no 



V V better opportunities than we have 
here. But we need a new spirit of faith and 
love, in order that God's kingdom shall come 
and his will be done in this world, making 
this a heaven. This heaven must begin in 
our own hearts, or it will be no heaven to us. 
That is why it is said, " Unless a man be 
born again" (or rather, "be born from on 



December 23. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 335 



high "), " he cannot see the kingdom of God." 
Put him in an outward heaven, and he will 
not see it. Surround him with hosts of angels, 
and he does not see them. Fill his ears with 
the songs of seraphs, and he knows nothing 
of that divine melody. Until he allows the 
spirit of truth and love to enter his own soul 
and make an inward heaven, no outward 
heaven can do him any good. 

This new heaven and new earth, full of 
righteousness, peace, and love, belong to us 
all : that is the gospel ; that is the good news. 
The grace of God which brings salvation has 
appeared to all men. Christ has died for all 
men, and the manifestation of the spirit is 
given to every man to profit withal. You 
need not wait till some miracle has converted 
you, or till some vast change has taken place 
in you. You have already the seeds of the 
new life in you by the Christian truths you 
have been taught, and the Christian influence 
under which you have lived. All you have to 
do is to walk in, through the open door, into 
the love of God and man. Believe you can 
do it, and you can do it. 



December 24. 

FIRST the new heavens, then the new 
earth, — this is the order by which life 
comes down. First the new earth, then the 
new heavens, — this is the order by which 
human effort goes up. For our work begins 
with what is around us, doing good to our 



336 



MESSAGES OF 



next-door neighbor, and widening out the 
circles of Christian activity. For our inspira- 
tion we go at once to the Most High, as the 
universal Father, and live in communion with 
him. So the new heavens will make a new 
earth ; and earth, vivified by this influence, 
will be developed into the kingdom of heaven. 

During the coming year Christ can make 
everything new in our souls, if we will let him 
do so. He can bring God so near to us that, 
instead of seeing a great and awful being, to 
be propitiated by prayers and humiliation, he 
shall seem better to us than the best friend, 
dearer and tenderer than the tenderest. We 
may come to feel habitually the influence of 
God in our souls, making all things new. 

So, too. in our churches the same spirit 
can make all things new. So in society, in 
the State, in the world, the new heavens may 
this year make more and more of a new earth. 

So. in the coming year, our nation, purified 
by trial, disciplined by difficulty, may begin to 
escape the snares and nets of selfish politi- 
cians, and learn to do justly, and to love 
mercy, and walk humbly with God. 



HILE Easter gives hope of an immortal 



VV life, Christmas brings to us the hope 
of a better life in this world. 

Every good gift is from above. But, as the 
year brings round this Christmas season, we 
can rejoice that God sent, in the fulness of 



December 25. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 337 

time, that eldest Son, our Elder Brother, who 
has gifts for all mankind. 

The star of the magi still stands over every 
cradle. The angel song is heard in the heart 
of every parent. Christmas makes an aureole 
of heavenly light around all the infants in 
Christian lands. 

Christmas is a presage of the time when 
wars shall cease ; when the whole Church 
shall be one ; when the Christ of love and 
truth shall be everywhere accepted, obeyed, 
and loved, and the knowledge of God shall 
fill the earth as the waters cover the sea. 

We rejoice in Christ's hope for mankind ; 
we are happy in his brotherly love ; we are 
led by him to his Father and our Father, to 
his God and our God ; we join in the angels' 
song, " Glory to God in the highest, and on 
earth peace, good will to men." 



HUS it is that immortality and heaven 



1 are coming, because they are already 
here. Thus it is that true worship, pure 
Christianity, humane religion, are sure to 
come to their full and ripe harvest, because 
they are already here in their seed and germ. 
So it is that the living experience and the 
deep convictions of the human heart are 
always a sure word of prophecy of the glory 
which is to be revealed ; and the life which 
comes now from God and Christ is the promise 
and assurance of the life which is to come 
hereafter. 



December 26. 




338 



MESSAGES OF 



December 27. 



AND so we realize that death is nothing ; 
that we are already immortal ; that the 
hour of immortal life cometh, and now is. 
Death ceases to exist to a Christian. He 
looks forward to the time when he shall fall 
asleep, and wake again, surrounded by all 
whom he loves and who love him, — by the 
spirits of the just made perfect. 

That which Plato and Euripides thought 
possible, Jesus saw to be real ; and so he said, 
" He who liveth and believeth in me shall 
never die." So he always called death sleep ; 
so his disciples said that he had abolished 
death, — he took away its terror out of their 
hearts. 



HEN you stood by the side of your 



VV loved ones during the last year, and 
bade them farewell, and said, " It is the last 
time," it was the last time, and the first time, 
too. It was the last time you saw them on 
earth, but the first time you thought of them 
in heaven. From that hour you have stood 
looking up into heaven ; you have had another 
friend above ; you have been made a compan- 
ion of saints and angels. At such times we 
think with sorrow of how much more we might 
have done for our friends than we did, of 
opportunities forever gone which we might 
have used. No one looked on that cold face 
— a brother, sister, wife, father — without 



December 28. 




FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



339 



saying in his heart, " Why did I not do more 
while I had him ? " If you have felt so, then 
make use of that lesson by doing more for 
those who remain. 



We are living at the end of an old epoch 
and the beginning of a new one. We can say, 
looking backward, "It is the last time " ; 
" Upon us the ends of the world have come." 
Looking forward, we can say that we are 
spectators at the creation of a new heaven and 
a new earth. To-day, as then, he that sits 
on the throne makes all things new. Christ's 
coming is to take place in the year on which 
we are about to enter. He is to come to us 
all. To all of us it is the last time for many 
things, the first time for many other things. 
No hand on the horologue of time points the 
hour, no bell sounds it out from the skies. 
We see not any outward change from day to 
day. Yet each year takes away the old, and 
brings the new. 

December 29. 

HOW wonderful is life ! Every moment 
we stand between two eternities. An 
infinite past comes to an end, and an infinite 
future begins. It all belongs to us, if we 
choose to have it. Let the dead past bury 
its dead. Let us, who are of the day, act like 
children of the day. Let us go forth to sow 
the seed of the future ; to do something which 
shall be good and useful to some human 



34° 



MESSAGES OF 



being ; to make the world in some way better 
for our presence here. Each soul has its 
own faculty : it can help in some way to make 
the world more cheerful and more beautiful. 

This it is which makes life worth living. 
If we are living only for ourselves, our own 
amusement, luxury, advancement, life is not 
worth living. But, if we are living as co- 
workers with Christ, as fellow-helpers with 
God, as part of the noble army of martyrs 
who bear witness to the truth in all time, then 
our lives are full of interest. This gives 
sweetness and strength to all our days. The 
last time has no gloom for us when it comes : 
it is the first time of something better. 

But, to have this joy and strength, we must 
realize that God is with us, and working in 
us to will and to do. Faith in an ever-present 
power, ready to vitalize the soul whenever we 
open it to him ; faith in an ever-present love, 
which will hold us in its all-embracing arms; 
in an all-surrounding providence, which will 
cause all things to work together for good ; 
faith in an ever-present spirit, which will teach 
us what to say and do, give us peace, make 
us sources of good influence, save us from 
evil, inspire our hearts with generous and 
noble sentiment, — this faith will give all ex- 
istence a charm, and help us to use all op- 
portunities aright. 



FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 341 

December 30. 

HE year which has gone brought to us 



I much, and took away much. Christ 
came to us this last year whenever truth came 
to us ; whenever we saw clearly in our mind 
the reality of duty and love, of a religious life. 

There is no necessary sadness in last times. 
The sun which sets on our horizon is rising 
on a western world. Every setting sun is also 
a rising sun. Every end is also a beginning. 
Every death is the beginning of another life. 

If, then, we look backward on past oppor- 
tunities, it is that we may look forward on 
new duties. 

Opportunity goes, but inspiration comes. 
Time goes, but eternity comes : the human 
goes, the divine comes. The world passes 
away, and the fashion of it; but heaven 
comes, — the heaven of a better faith, loftier 
hope, more generous love, making all things 
new and fair. 



LET us thank God that there are many keys 
by which to open the blessed door which 
leads into the heavenly kingdom. To one 
the door is opened in childhood ; and the little 
feet go in, and the small curly head is already 
surrounded with the pure glory of a light 
beaming from the presence of God. Another 
drops early the trivialities and follies of youth, 
and lifts deep, earnest eyes towards the great 
truths of life and time, of death and eternity. 




December 31. 



34 2 FAITH, HOPE, AND LOVE. 



One enters the kingdom by faithful work : 
loyalty to duty unlocks the door, and he goes 
in. One finds the key through temptation, 
sorrow, sin, remorse, penitence, turning to 
God in hopeless shame, but meeting hope and 
unexpected joy shed abroad in his heart. 
One rises from the bed of sickness with all of 
his past life closed behind him, and a new 
life, filled with purer hopes, opening upward 
into heaven. One is moved by the noble 
words, the holy life, and the rapt enthusiasm 
of the saints and martyrs, by the utterings of 
genius and the eloquence of fiery hearts, and 
follows, with enthusiastic love, their pathway, 
till they lead him to the mountain heights of 
holy truth. 

Such are the different paths which lead 
us to God. So we come, at last, to Christ, 
the image of the invisible God. The air of 
heaven, even here, begins to fan our heated 
brow ; the music of heaven comes softly down, 
mingling with our daily life ; the light of the 
upper world shines into our poor human 
hearts. God be blessed for it all, — for all 
the sorrow, all the joy, all the experience of 
good and evil, light threads and dark threads 
shooting to and fro across the web of human 
life ! Brothers and sisters, — dear friends of 
mine, fellow-workers in this wonderful world, 
— let us be fellow-helpers through it, till we 
meet on that higher shore, in that larger lib- 
erty, and with that fuller peace of rest and 
action which remains for God's children, be- 
yond the low-arched gateway that mortals call 
death. 



Unbex, 



BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS 



FROM WHICH THE EXTRACTS WERE TAKEN. 



The Hour which cometh." January 22, 23 ; 
February 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 17, 23; 
March 1, 2; April 1, 2, 4, 14, 20; May 2, 6, 
7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 17, 22, 23, 26, 27, 28, 29, 31 ; 
June 1, 16; July 4, 26; August 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 

18, 19; September 11, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 21, 
22; October 20, 21, 27, 30; November 17; 
December 5, 6, 11, 16, 17, 26, 27, 31. 

Common Sense in Religion." March 6, 8, 9, 
17; April 1, 12, 18; May 3, 5, 16, 20, 21; 
June 14, 15 ; August 26 ; September 13 ; Oc- 
tober 6; November 11 ; December 18. 

Every-day Religion." January 9, 10, 26, 27; 
February 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 19, 20, 
21; June 20, 21, 22; July 1, 18; August 1, 
27; September 7 ; October 10, 11, 26; No- 
vember 9, 24, 25, 28, 30. 

Self-culture." January 21 ; May 1, 4; July 
5,6,8,9, 10, 11, 12, 28; August 28; No- 
vember 2, 4, 5, 6, 8, 19, 20, 21, 26, 27; De- 
cember 10. 

The Ideas of Paul." June 17, 18, 19; July 
27, 29, 30; August 31. 

Go up Higher." January 5, 9, 15, 16, 17, 18, 

19, 20, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 31 ; March 10, 17, 
25; May 19; June 13; July 19; August 9, 



346 INDEX. 

it, 12, 13. 14. 16. 17; September 8, 20, 23, 
28; October 19. 24; November 1, 29; De- 
cember 1, 2, 7, 22, 23, 24. 

"Steps of Belief." April 17, 27, 29; Septem- 
ber 12, 27; October 18, 19. 

" Essentials and Non-essentials. 1 ' March 
26: April 3, 5, 6, 10; September 14, 30; 
October i, 8, 18, 22, 23, 25, 28, 29. 

" The Lord's Prayer." February 25, 26 ; 
March 7 ; April 11; August 25; October 4. 

"Vexed Questions in Theology." February 
24; April 13; October 9, 13; November 3, 
10, 17 ; December 1 5. 



SERMONS 

NOT PRINTED IN VOLUMES. 



Those to which the * is prefixed are published in pam- 
phlet form by Geo. H. Ellis. 

" To Know God, or be Known of Him." 
March 11, 21, 22; May 14. 

"What do we Know of God?" March 12. 15. 

" Hereby we Know that we Know him." 
March 18. 

" The Unknown God and the Known God." 
March 19, 24. 

" God Above, Below, Around, Within.'* 
March 20, 30. 



INDEX. 347 

"The Unspeakable Gift." March 23, 27, 31 ; 
June 13. 

"The Transfiguration of Life." June 24, 
25, 26, 27, 28, 29. 

"The Living God." March 3. 

" Liberal Christianity in Regard to a Re- 
cent Criticism." March 14; October 12. 

" The Spirit, Water, and Blood." March 
13, 16. 

* " Old and New View of the Hereafter." 
December 8, 9, 14, 19, 20, 21. 

" The Holy Ghost, the Comforter." June 2. 

"Do not be Discouraged." July 7, 15, 16, 
17, 21 ; November 22. 

" Overcome Evil with Good." July 23, 24. 

" A Willing Mind." July 20 ; August 30. 

*"The Brotherhood of Man." May 25. 

*" Religion for Man." May 30. 

"Good Stronger than Evil." July 13, 25. 

"Patience." July 14. 

* " Rejoice Evermore." July 2, 3, 22. 

" The Last Time." December 28, 29, 30. 

* " Mutual Obligations of Science and Re- 

ligion." March 5 ; May 24 ; September 
1, 2. 

* " Ministry of the Letter and Spirit." 

April 1 9 ; August 29. 

*"Man doth not live by Bread Alone." 
April 28; September 13. 



34& INDEX. 

" The Work of a City Church/' October 

2, 3, 5, 14, 15, 16. 

u The One Thing Needful." November 7. 

"There remaixeth a Rest." February 1. 

* " The Genuine Prayer." February 23, 27. 

" When He Came to himself." March 4 ; 
May 15, 18; June 12. 

* " What God gives he gives Forever." 
March 28; May 12; August 15; September 

9, 10. 

* u From Faith to Faith." June 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 
8, 9, 10. 

* " A Sermon on Scolding." August 19, 20, 
21, 22, 23, 24. 

" Some Unfashionable Virtues." September 

3, 24, 25. 

" The Peace-makers." September 29. 

" My Feet shall stand in a Large Place." 
October 17. 

" Evidential Character of Faith." June 1 1. 

"All Things are Yours." July 31. 

" The Grace of God and the Work of 
Man." August 6, 7, 8. 

* " The Mind of Christ." April 22, 23, 24, 
25, 26 ; May 13. 

" Souls already Risen with Christ." April 
7, 8 ; December 13. 

*" Christ and Other Masters." April 9, 

10, 16. 

*"The Joys of Christmas." December 12, 25. 



INDEX. 349 

"The Duties of the Hour." November 12, 
13, 14, 15, 16, 18, 23. 

*" HOW TO GET THE MOST OUT OF THE COMING 

Year." January 1, 2, 7, 8, 11, 13, 14. 

*" A Happy New Year." January 3, 4, 6, 12. 

" How to change Time into Life." Decem- 
ber 3, 4. 

" The Three Salvations." April 1 5 ; June 23. 



POEMS. 



" Rabia," February 7 ; " He who Asks Re- 
ceives," February 28 ; " When Faith was 
lost," March 22; "Hymn and Prayer," 
March 29; " Cana," April 21; " Jesus 
Christ, King, Prophet, and Saviour," 
April 30 ; " Protecting Shadows," June 
30; "Reformation Hymn," September 4; 
"Judge the' People by their Actions," 
September 26. 



